Darren Aronofsky's Mother Is The Mother Of All Controversial Films For 2017. But Its Good

The fall of 2017 has brought forth a string of awkward new releases, that have either gone onto achieving both critical acclaim and box office stature such as Stephen King's IT, or critically acclaimed yet disappointing box office run such as Blade Runner 2049. In between the two lies the films, that are released with the hope and promise that they will not only receive the acclaim from critics as well as audiences, but would also find an audience to push the film towards profitability. In the case of Darren Aronofsky's Mother, the film has not only underperformed with audiences on a critical level judging by it's F Cinemascore despite critics giving it mixed to generally positive reviews, but has completely been shafted by audiences despite the film not deserving to be. Darren Aronofsky's Mother may be many things as there's many different ways that audiences can read his latest film, Mother may be ambitious, and misunderstood, but one thing it's far from being is a terrible movie

      The best kind of viewers that Mother can ask for, are those who are familiar with Darren Aronofsky's work prior to his new film. Aronofsky is a different type of mainstream filmmaker, who molds his film into being literal pieces of art, making them appear to be gorgeously photographed with stunning Cinematography along with getting the finest performances out of his actors/actresses, while challenging his audience to think about the films he has them viewing. It helps that Aronofsky chooses stories that are not only engaging to the audience, but draws them in whether they agree with the outcome of the story or not. Requiem For A Dream was amazing in showing how people can have downward spirals as direct consequences of doing drugs. The Fountain was an underappreciated masterpiece, that needs a second reevaluation from audiences with perhaps a longer directors cut The Wrestler was a solid film about a faded Wrestler being forced to retire, but ends up finding his life outside of the ring to be an emotional struggle. Black Swan was an intense psychological thriller, that has Natalie Portman delivering the best performance of her career. Noah was visually stunning and well-acted, but the artistic approach that Aronofsky took with the film is questionable given that the film felt like it went off the rails at times. The final product wasn't disastrous, but didn't stand up to par with the rest of Aronofsky's previous work.

      Mother is a return to form for the unique director, who specializes in telling dark stories about people's downward spirals. Mother is approximately two hours long with 90 mins of it being relying on it's main stars to drive the story as the pacing is slow and steady, but the tension builds slowly up until it's bizarre and disturbing climax. The plot for Mother centers around a couple's relationship being tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, placing a disruption with their tranquil experience. The four main actors that drive the story with Mother are Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Ed Harris. The story is told through the perspective of Lawrence's character as she tries to make sense of what's happening around her while slowly losing her patience with the uninvited guests. Lawrence is the perfect choice for the part as she is believable, captivating, and utterly convincing in the part. Despite Mother's polarizing reception with audiences, one hopes that she receives a worthy Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her performance in this film. Javier Bardem is terrific as usual and brings his A game to the part with Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer turning in strong supporting roles as well, the latter is nice to see on the big screen again given she doesn't work as frequently nowadays. The film moves at a rather slow pace, but the stellar performances and the mood of the film make the story engaging as the tension slowly builds up until the films bizarre third act.

Stating the direct obvious, Mother isn't for everybody as only true fans of Aronofsky will have the patience and open-mind to embrace the story for it's unusual tone and numerous question the film poses. The movie covers topics ranging from narcissism to hero worship, exotic religions, and plagues of the old testament, death, and immortality. Many of these themes Aronofsky has previously covered with his earlier films such as the Biblical aspect of his films along with death and immortality. Mother's final message says that being married to a narcissist searching for everyone's love can ultimately become unbearable as the film shows. Mother is a film, that's unafraid to take risks and challenge it's audience with what they think they know about the story, but being daring can also be it's downfall. There is no question that Mother is thought-provoking and an ambitious product of the director's artistic vision, the film is entertaining and involving despite the storyline feeling a bit uneven at times due to it's pacing. It can be speculated that one of the reasons the film underperformed with audiences on a critical level is how misleading the marketing was aimed towards it, leading audiences to believe that the film was a thriller/horror flick. The film doesn't reveal it's true form of madness into it's second half, but even then it still doesn't come close to qualifying as being a horror flick.

      Its rather unfortunate that Mother's marketing was misleading as those who gave the film a chance and enjoyed it can't help but wonder how audiences would've embraced it if the marketing push for the film was more straight-forward. Mother is not a bad movie and certainly worth watching if you're a fan of the actors in the film or it's brilliant director, it just comes across as being a bit too artsy for the general audience ultimately. The acting by the main cast is stellar particularly Lawrence and Bardem with Aronofsky at the peak of his artistic craft, delivering eye catching visuals as well as beautiful Cinematography, that accompanies all of his films. There are many different ways people can read the film as there are more symbolism to it outside of the obvious observation of the story revolving around a narcissistic man who drains his partners of their love and moves onto the next, younger model. Mother will go down as one of the most controversial movies of 2017 as questions will arise over the films disappointing box office performance as well as the critical slamming it took from audiences with it's F Cinemascore with the critics being much more welcoming towards it. The film is far from being a bad movie but also isn't a great film, it manages to fall somewhere in between but it's the performances of the cast as well as the directors vision that make it worth watching. Mother is a good film, dare one says a pretty solid one, but one wonders what this movie's legacy could've turned out like had it's marketing been more straight-forward.

Final Verdict: SEE IT