146.
Mother!
5/10
Another horror, in a time when everyone has to compete with IT. The trailer to this, didn't show too much about what was in store but with the cast of Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer, it had some pedigree behind it. What it did have was some unnerving drums and sort of scratching noise throughout. The caption says that a couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. With a series of boos and standing ovations at a film festival, I haven't a clue what is to come. Let's hope it won't be one my Mother should have stopped me watching.
Let's start with a quick run through of the storyline, which I can admit was the most confusing thing that I have ever watched. Speeding through it, the film begins with an unknown woman's face, stern but flames surround her, until she ultimately dies. This then turns into someone putting a crystal on a mantle, and the burnt house turning into a newly, refurbished of sorts, house and a woman in bed. She reaches over for her husband, who isn't there and sits up, revealing herself as Lawrence's character. She gets up and goes on the search around the house for her husband. A few days later and a random man shows up, he's a doctor and Bardem's character invites him in and quickly have a discussing. Bardem is a poet and this guy is a massive fan. He's shown around the house and to the crystal that we have seen earlier. This crystal was the only thing that survived when the house burnt down before. Jennifer Lawrence's character is rebuilding the house for him, after he has lost everything Turns out, the two men have drunk too much together and Jennifer's character, who will call Mother, wakes into his room to see her husband rubbing his back as he is sick in the toilet. The husband, who we'll call Him, quickly covers a big cut and bruising on the man's back. The next morning, he's totally fine, but there is another knock on the door and this guy's wife turns out. She invited to stay too, and Mother doesn't like it. Him, seems happy to leave these strangers in and loves the attention he gets from them as fans. The woman loves a drink and soon reveals that her husband is dying so wanted to see his favourite poet. Mother is constantly cleaning up after them, following them around and having to get the woman out of her husband's study. She runs downstairs to find her husband and they both hear a smash from upstairs. The man and woman are in the study and have dropped the crystal. This send Him into a massive spiral of anger and shuts them all out of the study, before nailing the door closed. The man and woman have headed down to their room and instantly start having sex, with no care about what had just happened.
Some more days pass and other than the Man and Woman's sons turning up, one killing the other and a massive funeral being held at the house. This funeral brings many people and they don't seem to want to listen to Mother. Treating the house as their own, sitting on work surfaces, trying to use the bedrooms and then trying to decorate, Mother finally loses her patience and kicks everyone out. Mother and Him are the only ones left to continue living their lives. A time frame passes and it turns out that she is pregnant, which gives Him the passion to write once more. His latest piece of work brings his adoring fans back, who turn up at the house and distract him from his wife. They end up letting themselves into the house and an autograph station is set up, they start taking apart the house and stealing things to prove they were there. This is now where the movie gets a little mental. Everyone starts getting aggressive and fighting, which leads to the police turning up and attacking people. Then the army arrive, before being killed. Everyone is behind cages, the agent for Him is shooting unarmed people in the head, the place is wrecked, full of graffiti and suddenly becomes dark. All of this is seen with Mother being followed around. She is soon saved by Him, who carries her to his study, were he has to pass by all of his fans to get too. She gives birth in there and doesn't want to hand the baby to Him, in fear that he will take it to the fans. He is clearly seduced by these people, loving the attention that he craves. Mother has fallen asleep and woken to her empty arms as Him has taken the baby. She runs out of the room to see him carrying her son through the crowd before they take it off him and pass it around. That's until we hear its neck snap and a distraught Mother is battling through the crowd to get to a table where the baby's carcass is lying on a shrine, being eaten by the fans. She starts to battle and shout for them to leave, scratching her husband's face and running down to the cellar. There, she smashes through a plastered over wall, cracks open an oil drum and decides to set the pool of oil on fire, which quickly spread through the house and causes everyone to run for their lives. Him picks her burnt body up and there isn't a mark on him, no dirt or anything. He lays her down on the couch and plunges his hands into her chest, pulling out the crystal that was smashed earlier, leaving her to die. The crystal is once again put back onto the mantle and the house begins to rebuild itself, to the point that the film began at. We are once again in the bedroom, watching a woman wake, but this time it isn't Jennifer Lawrence playing the Mother.
The whole background to this story is centred around religion. Mother, is the Earth or Mother Nature, creating the home. Him is God, the creator of work, which many people come to love and worship. Their house can be seen as Eden and the Man would be Adam. When we see the cut on his back, which God covers up, it symbolises the rib which was taken to create Eve. Obviously, this means that the Woman is Eve, the bad influence on Adam and her being drunk, smashing the crystal would link with Eve eaten the apple from the forbidden tree and both being chucked out of Eden. All of the police, army and sex shows the debauchery brought to Earth, and things that Mother Nature wouldn't be happy with happening in her home. Finally, the baby scene. This would be the body of Christ and the bread at the last supper. This is a very interesting way to tell a story and that's not even touching the strain of the relationship between Mother and Him.
Unless you went home and googled what this movie was about, it's is a hard thing to watch at times. I sat there confused towards the end as everything was falling apart, wondering what was coming next and how Him was so calm during the whole fiasco. It is a unique concept, in the way that showing a religious story in the form of everyday life, to an extent. Away from the main storyline, there are other, smaller events featured in the bible, that are featured in the movie. The film was made more unnatural with no use of music, no musical score at all and the lack of names carried this different style too. No-one's name was mentioned at any point and this again was confusing. I don't think I have felt this uncomfortable during a movie for a while which leads this to a hard decision on how to rate it. For the watch and confusion it brought, I rated it quite low but the cleverness of the story that it is trying to portray means that it could have been quite higher, but this could only be understood after going home and reading about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment