Good Morning Lovelies, 

Mother! was a film that got a lot of people talking - both good and bad – when it was first released in cinemas. Sadly, I missed out on watching it the first time around, so when I was sent it to review on DVD, I made sure to find the time to block everything out and get stuck in – especially after everything I had heard.

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Pfeiffer, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Domhall Gleeson and Kirsten Wiig, mother! is the most ambitious story that director Darren Afronofsky has ever made. Capturing the relationship between a young woman called mother (Lawrence) and her husband Him (Bardem), the film gives glimpses of a normal life to begin with, as mother works to fix their mythically damaged home and Him works on finding inspiration for his next novel.

However, their world changes, when a man and a woman turn up and decided to move in. With mad family members joining them and causing even more mayhem, the film takes a pretty dark turn early on with a murder that leads the story on a downward spiral, which never eases. Faced with a birth, death and humanity’s deception, viewers will be left in a state of pure confusion, horror and the inability to think after viewing it.

Lawrence and Bardem are the perfect couple because their acting talents are so different. Known for playing many baddies before, Bardem’s nurturing but crazy figure, against Lawrence’s soft but unsure character make for an intriguing pair who you are sure if you believe would actually be a real couple.

Afronofsky is a clever filmmaker there is no denying that and his direction of Lawrence has made her a strong contender for several awards, but there is something about this film that never sits right. Maybe it is the hardship of facing up that the film is a metaphor of what we are doing to the planet and the destruction we cause Mother Earth, which is who Lawrence is meant to be presenting that makes it hard to completely follow. Or maybe it is just the eccentric methods in which he has gone to convey this, but there is always something that makes you want to turn it off and not face the rest of it.

Yet, this is does make you think about the film for days later. I had to spend a whole day afterwards thinking about what I had seen, breaking it down and trying to come to terms with what the house meant. Was it the heart of mother? Why did it bleed? How did it still stand when the public destroyed it and it burnt down? And does this mean that humanity needs destruction to be reborn again? All these are questions that I am still not sure about.

As a piece of cinema, it is a gamechanger. It breaks away from the superheroes that audiences have relied on. Even in the same thriller genre. It shows that no one is right, but life carries on. If we spend time thinking about what we are doing or what is happening in the film then we will witness a change or like the new mother at the end of the film, a rebirth.

If you decide to watch mother! I would suggest that you keep a few hours spare afterwards. Because these are just my questions and thoughts on it and you may have a lot more. You may also need time to come to terms with Afronofsky’s new cinema universe.

A clever blend of new cinema mixed with confusion has earned this film…