A fictional character once said that “life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” There is a lot of truth in that saying, but not everyone one chooses the assortment chocolates, because there are people who want to know exactly what they are going to get. Those said people read ingredients on the side of food boxes and like their movie trailers to lay it all out there. I bring up this analogy because for those who have seen the marketing for “Mother!” might think you are getting a simple milk chocolate bite, but what you get instead is a unique mixture of flavors that will be your new favorite or the worst you ever had.
Everything starts simple enough as we find a couple setting up their new house in a secluded location. While the man (Javier Bardem) tries to write his next novel, his wife (Jennifer Lawrence) makes the house more like home. There is nothing abnormal about this couple and they really seem like the perfect one that most people would want to have as their significant other. That perfection though is interrupted by a knock at the door by a strange man (Ed Harris), who has confused the couple’s house for a bed and breakfast. The man invites the stranger to stay, even with his wife’s disapproval, but this is just the beginning. Soon the strange man’s wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) shows up and that’s when things really get set into motion.
It’s really hard to write any more about this movie than the vague description I wrote above. Mostly because this is a movie that will bring up different feelings and interpretations on its over all meaning. For me what I got out of it was WTF did I just see and I doesn’t really matter because I loved it. Films by Darren Aronofsky can do that to you sometimes, but of course in a good way. In the case of “Mother!” it will be extremely divisive, people who love it and those who despise it. I implore you to not listen to one side or the other and instead have your own experience with this film. That really is the best way I could describe it, “Mother!” is an experience unlike any other in a movie theater this year.
It’s ok for movies to do things other than simply entertain you, as this film is more like an art piece that hangs on your wall. It challenges you to look at and tell your friends what each brush stroke represents that is inevitably followed up with someone just saying “it’s a bunch of squiggly lines. “ “Mother!” is meant to deliver different responses, the kind that beg be discussed, because no one opinion that is correct and it’s ok to think differently. I got out of this movie what I felt was what it was trying to tell me, the question is what will you get out of it?
