This movie is rated R, it is not meant for children.
Mother! is a film that follows the lives of a young couple (played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem), and how their home and livelihood slowly becomes unraveled and destroyed in an allegorical sense that is really hard for the viewer to understand. This film is going to be incredibly hard to write a review for, but here goes. Bardem is a famous writer, and Lawrence spends her day cleaning, cooking, and making home improvements. They live a very secluded life: their house (an old mansion) is in the middle of no where and they scarcely have visitors. They seem like a normal, happy couple, but the viewer immediately knows something is off from the opening scene, which is chilling and very odd, and foreshadowing for the end (albeit you don't know when you first see it). Their lives become disrupted very quickly when they receive an unexpected guest who stays the night. He is a doctor and also a complete stranger, but he seems to hit it off with Bardem from the get go. They bond and have long talks over drinks. This is odd for Lawrence, because she is so shocked that her husband would let a complete stranger stay in their house, but he could easily just be mistaken for a crazy fan of Bardem's, since he is a famous writer. Things escalate quickly when the rest of the doctor's family arrive unannounced and uninvited, the wife being extremely rude to Lawrence but deeply in awe of Bardem. After snooping around their luggage, Lawrence finds a picture of her husband in the doctor's bag. This really freaks her out, as it would anyone, and at this point she really wants them to leave. You get the feeling that Bardem likes the attention or knows something that his wife doesn't, because he is so at ease and says that he likes their company. The movie takes a turn when their two sons show up, angry and fighting over who gets their father's inheritance (it is revealed that he is dying), and one son kills the other. This was shocking and much like a thriller or horror film, but this is when the movie turns from suspenseful and off-putting to another dimension that makes the film unlike any I have seen before. When the son dies, people start flooding into the house to have a gathering to celebrate the his life. Bardem seems to be a magnet for these people, they surround him and admire him, almost in a weird way where he is not human. All while this is happening, Lawrence is discovering more things going on within her house. Since she cleaned the blood from the murder scene that took place within the home, there is a blood spot that stains the carpet that won't go away. She lifts the carpet up, and it is causing the wooden flooring to rot away and create a hole. She goes into the basement to check for further damage, and finds blood seeping from the floor onto the wall. The wall is eroding away, and with further examination part of the wall breaks away and Lawrence finds a hidden room/compartment on the other side, pitch black and something that you would expect from a horror movie. More on that later. *MANY spoilers in the next few paragraphs. After this odd funeral gathering in the house, for which there is no explanation but Bardem seems to think is completely normal, things go back to normal for a little. Lawrence becomes pregnant, and Bardem finally writes again and his new piece sells out in one day. Things are going swell. One night, the couple decides to celebrate together the success of Bardem's latest work. Everything is perfect, and Lawrence seems to finally be getting back to her normal self and happy once again. Then, the doorbell rings again. (Doorbells and knocking seems to be a recurring theme). As the door opens, there are hundreds of reporters and interviewers and fans waiting for Bardem to speak. (How did they find him? How did they know where he lives? These are all unanswered questions.) Then, it turns really crazy very quickly. People invite themselves in, flooding in and crashing the house, the scene turning into total anarchy. People are breaking things, fighting, making out, and everything else that you can imagine in every corner of the house. Bardem seems to be a magnet for these complete strangers, and they obviously think of him much higher than just an ordinary famous writer. There is a really creepy scene where people in the house create a shrine with pictures of Bardem, and an impromptu priest is marking the people on their foreheads, much like they do in a Catholic mass on Ash Wednesday. Police show up, there is a ton of guns being shot and people being killed. It is hard to describe what all is happening in the house. There is war, religion, and terrorism. Then, Lawrence goes into labor. Bardem finds her, and takes her into his study where she delivers the baby while people are desperately trying to break down the door and get to them. Lawrence begs her husband to make them leave, saying that they will listen to him. He finally says, "I don't want them to go." This is when you know that Bardem is not just her husband, but he is either in on something that she doesn't know about or knows the reason why these people are all here. Lawrence falls asleep, and when she wakes up, her baby is gone. Bardem is parading the baby around the house, with all the people screaming and shouting and celebrating. They are all grabbing for the baby, desperate to hold him, and once they finally get a hold of him, they snap the baby's neck on accident. He is dead Lawrence completely loses it at this point, and proceeds to set herself and the entire house on fire. You would think that this would be where the movie ends, but it wasn't. Her husband, completely unburnt and unharmed from the fire, carries Lawrence from the rubble. She is barely alive and almost burnt to death. He says, "I need one more thing from you," and Lawrence says, "I have nothing left to give." He then says that he needs her heart. He reaches into Lawrence's body, which was a particularly disturbing part, and pulls out a diamond. Lawrence then turns completely into ash, and Bardem takes the diamond and sets it back to its rightful place in a case in Bardem's study. He laughs, and the house turns from rubble and ash back into its original state, with an entirely new woman as his wife. (This was the exact opening scene, except it is a new wife instead of Lawrence). I left this movie in a state of shock and confusion. I had no idea what I had just watched for the past two hours. After some researching, I realized that this movie is an allegory for religion and current events. This movie has allegorical references to Christianity, Catholicism, the Bible, and things that are happening on the news. Bardem is the god-like figure, which is obvious from him being unburnt from the fire, the people being drawn to him and worshipping him, and the ending scene where he places the diamond in the case and the entire house builds itself again. The house is, in a sense, his creation. It is debated what Lawrence's character represents, some saying she is Mother Earth, Mary, or Eve from the Bible. She definitely represents some feminine energy that is a reference to some Biblical figure. You get some serious Cain and Abel vibes from the two brothers fighting and one killing the other in the opening scene. There is also the references to current events, with the terrorist attacks and gun violence that goes on within the house towards the end of the movie. The trailer of Mother! makes it look like a horror film, but it is unlike a horror film completely and left me feeling confused and dazed instead of scared. It kind of belittles beliefs such as Christianity and Catholicism, which might explain why so many people walked out of the theatre in the middle of the film. I don't really know what to say about this movie, other than it was incredibly hard to grasp. It is definitely unlike any movie that I have ever seen. If you are looking for a movie that sends you on an intellectual mind trip and makes you question the meanings of everything, then I would recommend it.
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AuthorCasey Land Archives
January 2018
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