Unlike the usual LOVE IT or HATE IT split reaction to a Darren Aronofsky envelope-pushing provocation, MOTHER! was pretty much all HATE IT. Disingenuously sold as an intellectual horror pic, it’s really more of a modernized NOAH/’14 reboot, his previous Biblical misstep. (Though told without a Noah character as God-chosen conduit to ‘reboot’ the world.) Hard to imagine that a less deceptive ad campaign would have kept this from flat-lining. Mismatched couple Jennifer Lawrence (dewy, self-reliant homemaker) and blocked Hemingwayesque writer Javier Bardem unexpectedly find their isolated country home is being rapidly invaded by the strangest of strangers in exponentially growing numbers, with the house & their relationship falling apart from the stress. (Or maybe it’s those hand-held cameras working so darn close in.) And once the allegorical nature of the film kicks in, things spin even faster out of control with ultra-violence & gore. What’s going on here? Shhh, it’s all about creation . . . er . . .CREATION; and learning about God, unhappy with his score after the first 9, taking a ‘Mulligan.’ (A modest self-portrait for writer/director Aronofsky?) Even a pithy (if unspoken) moral: If at first you don’t succeed, try & try again. But maybe at a different studio.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: What a good opportunity to revisit ROSEMARY’S BABY/’68.
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