mother!

Allegory - a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

mother! is an allegorical tale. One loaded with metaphor and meaning. I'm glad I watched it but I don't know if I liked it or not. I left the cinema shaking my head and it's still shaking. I'll tell you two things though, it's certainly unique and it's very rare a film like this gets released into multiplex cinemas and on those basis's alone I'd recommend it. Btw the lowercase m in the title isn't a mistake.

Ha. Jaysus. How to talk about this without spoilers? Eek. Was that just a spoiler?

A man and a woman live a solitary life in a house. Husband is an artist suffering from writer's block and Wife is renovating the entire house after it was gutted by a fire.  Another man turns up. And then his wife. And then their two sons and then..................

It's a film that starts off with a whisper and gradually builds to a roar. A hellish, hideous roar. The last 40 minutes of this will live in your head for a while. It reminded me of the fucked up morphine induced dreams I had in hospital a few years back. It's grotesque in places and one scene may make you want to run roaring from the cinema. It builds to a level of intensity that rivals the end scenes of director Darren Aronofsky's previous film Requiem For A Dream. Don't let the earlier pace of the film fool you. You'll be breathless by the end.

This was a two hour long film and I didn't have a clue what was going on until I copped it at around the 1hr 50 minute mark. I'm not complaining mind. I loved that moment of realisation and then retroactively putting the pieces of the jigsaw together. Maybe this makes me a slow fool I dunno. I think I got it anyway. I didn't just ruin a twist either BTW. All the pieces are there, dropped like breadcrumbs and I just missed them until the film literally battered me around the head.  

Jennifer Lawrence is the lead and she's fantastic. Absolutely convincing as a woman fearing for her own sanity. She displays a great physicality too because believe me she gets put through the wringer in this one. I can safely say she'll get another Oscar nomination for this. Javier Bardem is solid as her husband too. Really gets across the egotistical side of an artist well. Ed Harris and especially Michelle Pfeiffer are very good as the visitors and I just loved seeing Michelle back on screen. She's always great and it's been far too long since I saw her in a proper film. Real life Irish brothers and actors Domhnaill and Brian Gleeson turn up in small roles too but make the most of their screen time.

It's not a film for everyone. A lot of people will see it as pretentious toss and that may well be the case but my god it's compellingly pretentious toss. Others will hate it and that's understandable too. The slow beginning, ponderous silences and unexplained happenings will annoy some people and the insane turns in the final third of the movie will horrify others. But if you are sick of blockbuster fare and CGI cartoons and are looking for something very different go see it. Be patient though. And don't be easily distressed.

You know what? After all that I think i liked it. Don't ever want to see it again though.