Bonfire of the insanity

‘mother!’ gaslights audience and protagonist alike

To some degree or another, Darren Aronofsky has been making influential, lauded horror movies for decades.

In “Pi,” a mathematician cracks reality and finds that his body doesn’t agree. Two drug addicts in love avoid reality, discovering their own—to horrific effect—in “Requiem for a Dream.”  In “The Fountain” a talented doctor repeatedly loses the love of his life, and his sense of sanity, across millennia. An aging wrestler (“The Wrestler”) fights obsolescence and decrepitude. And an ambitious dancer is transmogrified by her vanity (“Black Swan”). All are facets of fear, human failure, and ignominious death.

And to some degree or another, they are spiritual. That became more obvious with Aronosfsky’s last feature, “Noah,” itself something of a horror film (God’s wrath can be pretty horrific) though written on the scale of an epic fantasy. The film, as it sounds, was a telling of the Biblical flood story, though maybe not the way you remember it. Murder, war, seeds from Eden that grow into water spouts. Giant rock-golems called Watchers who help build the ark and defend Noah and his people from the line of Cain. It didn’t color inside the lines—which was too much for many of the truly devout. I found it fresh and fascinating.

I’d say the same for his latest, “mother!” On the surface, it’s a Giallo-inspired horror film that serves as a frame for its spiritual allegory about man’s vanity, false idols, murderous nature, the destruction of the environment,
and hubris.

Him (Javier Bardem) is a world-famous poet with writer’s block, while Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) has been single-handedly rebuilding the house after a fire destroyed it. The May-October couple seem more partners than lovers.

Man (Ed Harris) and Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) are travelers, who heard they could get a room at the house. When he learns that Man is dying, Him graciously allows them to stay as long as they want—much to Mother’s disconcertion.

The new houseguests are presumptuous and nosy. Then, their two sons arrive (Domhnall and Brian Gleeson) and promptly get into a fight about Man’s last will and testament. The fight leads to the arrival of even more presumptuous houseguests who indulge in increasingly bad behavior—incurring Mother’s wrath.

I didn’t get it, at first. The sense of allegory was tangible, but just out of reach. Him’s complete disregard for his wife was maddening. The actions of the characters around them were equally confounding. Yes, there was the obvious vanity of Him—who loves being adored—the adulation of Man, and the ire of Mother who built the place. And then they who wrecked it without regard for her hospitality.

Any of that starting to sound familiar?

Much like his reworking of Biblical history in “Noah,” Aronofsky blends Old Testament morality and myth with his environmentalist beliefs to indict human nature, and frames it in a psychological horror film whose unfailing tension slowly builds to a catastrophic crescendo of divine retribution.

It’s a brutal, haunting work of art, the clear vision of a singular cinematic voice. Nothing about “mother!” winds up being what it seems or what you expect—even when the fog begins to clear.

That is to say: This film isn’t for everyone. Not even close.

The main actors turn in fine performances. Pfeiffer has not lost her creepy, intense edge. The mounting tension and anxiety are accentuated by lack of a score. You will be squirming in your seat. Shot on Super 16mm—then blown up to 35mm—the film looks lovely, textural, and befitting of a ‘70s horror movie.

“Mother!” has divided audiences and critics. You could argue that it is a narcissistic exercise from a filmmaker who is only clinically interested in the ecclesiastical subtext driving his stories. But where “Noah” was at least aspirational, “mother!” is an accusation. I wasn’t sure what to think when the lights went up. And that’s what’s exciting about it, the most daring studio release from a master filmmaker that you will see this year.