mother!

2017 • 121 minutes

About this movie

academy award® winners jennifer lawrence (silver linings playbook) and javier bardem (no country for old men) deliver unforgettable performances in academy award nominated darren aronofsky’s (black swan) praised opus. the film shattered audiences and critics around the world. it’s been called “darkly exhilarating” (justin chang, los angeles times) and “aronofsky’s most daring film yet” (ben croll, indiewire). experience the visually arresting psychological thriller that will leave your heart pounding and your mind blown!

Ratings and reviews

I'm religious but am not offended by this film. This was basically the Bible on fast foward ...allegorically speaking. If there is a fault in it's philosophy it is in its insinuation that mother nature is 100% innocent. Sure she may be the most abused of the parties involved but she isn't pure. Just look at the vicious primordial dog eat dog trait of her & she is no saint. Truth is there is no true innocent.

This movie is saying God is an ego maniac, full of vanity that cares nothing about "mother nature" and the Earth. According to this film God only cares about the love and worship of his worshippers. And His worshippers only love Him because His mesmerizing writings(Scriptures, Torah, Gospel, and Quran), but really they are hypocrites because they don't have respect for his wife(mother nature) and his house(the Earth). This author is saying that God is so vain He even offered up his only son to his hypocritical and wicked fans(worshippers). The author is saying God's(the husband) worshippers are so wicked they wanted to eat the flesh(communion) of their Baby Jesus. And what does God(the husband) do? He says lets forgive them. Now mother nature or the Earth(the mother, Lawrence's character) is so sweet and nice but cares about her environment. The loving mother(mother nature) who did all the construction and upkeep of the house(which also is symbolic of the Earth, and it is an extension of Lawrence"s character), only wants to please her husband (God). While he couldn't even write until she told him she was pregnant, but really the husband (God) cares nothing about the mother(Earth). When there is peace in the mother's mind the house(Earth) heals, but when the people(humanity) destroy her house, she(mother nature) get upset and there are calamities. At the end the husband(God) ,according to the author, selfishnessly minds a diamond out of the ashes and love that the wife(mother nature) has for him. Then the diamond allows the husband (God) to replenish the Earth(a new wife and the house) and do it all over again. Because as you noticed in the beginning of the movie, she(the mother) was not his first diamond(wife). I gave this movie one star because its to hard to understand and could be interpreted too many different ways. I only figured it out after I got one or two other insights. But once I understood it somewhat, I realize that the author is probably a white atheist environment nut who thinks we should worship the mother(Earth) instead of "the vain egotistical God(the Father)". If you recall in the movie the husband asks the wife can he hold the baby and she says no. Then he says "iam the father" and the wife yells at him forcefully "and iam the mother", and then the husband backs off. I think this silly author is trying to say the mother(mother nature) is more important than the father(God). I say the author is white because white people try to stand for righteousness and something good and still end up standing for evil. They just can't help it. They have no sense of what's right. Its just not in them. Although I do agree with the fact that this author beef is with Christianity. Because no God would give his righteous son(servant) for a wicked people to kill. And then make a religion worshipping the Son. Saying he did for your sins and all is forgiven. Who would want a weak god like that except the wicked devils.

Jennifer Lawrence’s character is Mother Nature, Javier Bardem’s character is God, Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer’s characters are Adam and Eve, Domhnall Gleeson, Brian Gleeson, are cain and abel. The entire movie is basically a retelling of the Bible. If you’ve seen the movie you know that, after the “flood” (i.e. the breaking of the sink), Lawrence’s character gets pregnant and she and the poet have been living a peaceful existence since the banishment of the “intruders”. But once the poet finishes his new poem, a horde of strangers come barging in, lavishing the poet with praise and acclaim. The poet’s new poem here is analogous to the New Testament of the Bible, and mother! then quickly runs through a “greatest hits” of humanity’s existence, focusing mainly on war, violence, and the creation of religion. When it comes time for Mother to finally have their baby, she and the poet retreat to his upstairs office, which is basically the Garden of Eden/Heaven. She gives birth but refuses to let the poet take the baby to the throng of onlookers downstairs. Unfortunately, as sleep deprivation gets the best of her, the poet snatches the baby from her arms and gives it to the people. The baby, in this instance, is Jesus Christ. Those familiar with the New Testament knew what was coming next—the poet gives his baby to the people, who then kill it. Mother is horrified, even moreso when the people start eating the baby while crying (i.e. consuming the body of Christ as in communion, during which we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins). Mother gets trampled and beaten badly, almost to the point of death, before she makes her escape. The parallel here is humanity killing the planet (i.e. Mother Nature). But as we’re experiencing right now with climate change, Mother Nature fights back. Lawrence’s character screams in terror, shaking the house (i.e. Earth), before running to the basement where she lets her wrath loose in full fury. Fittingly, she chooses an oil drum as her weapon (i.e. the fossil fuel industry) and sets the entire place on fire, killing all of humanity. The poet, being God/creator and thus immortal, survives and carries the badly burned Mother upstairs. She protests, asking him to stop, but he carries on opening her chest and pulling out another crystal like the one Pfeiffer and Harris’ characters broke at the beginning of the movie. It’s here that the gloomy ending comes into full view, as we realize Lawrence’s Mother was simply one of many Earths that God has created. Lawrence’s Mother tells him to stop, warning that humanity will always do this—turn on its creator, itself, and of course the Earth. But he strives to create, and thus he takes the crystal to the upstairs room, places it on the mantle, and the house restores itself and a brand new Mother wakes up in the bed, fresh-eyed and unaware that she’s just the next iteration of the cycle. By Adam Chitwood