Movie review: Mother!

There was no way to hide from 'Mother!'. Darren Aronofsky's new movie draws a lot of attention. On my Facebook timeline, it was inevitable. I avoided spoilers. But it was clear to me very quickly that there were people who loved it and people who hated it. It was called horror, but others called it a drama movie. I was glad that I was able to avid the spoilers. However, a movie getting so much attention always raises expectations! 

Darren Aronofsky is known for directing Black Swan (2010), the Wrestler (2008), Requiem for a Dream (2000), Pi (1998) and more! I had watched Black Swan again the week before I saw Mother!. I watched it for 2 reasons: 

1. To watch a Darren Aronofsky movie

2. I went to see the Shanghai ballet, Swan Lake, earlier that week. 

I totally loved the ballet, so I looked forward to watching Black Swan again to hold onto Swan Lake just a little bit longer. Black Swan is a very strong and tense movie. Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis are awesome. I enjoyed watching it for the second time. And it helped me to get into the right mindset for Mother!. Well: Needles to say that I was curious to see his new movie. 

Mother! is all about a couple played by Javier Bardem and Jennifer Lawrence. He lost everything in a fire and then met her. He's a writer of poems. She's restoring the house. They're living a calm and peaceful life. One day, the doorbell rings. There's a man standing at the door. He claims that someone told him the couple owns a bed & breakfast. Even though that isn't the case, they let him in. Later on, also his wife arrives at the house. The couple responds both very differently to these unexpected events and it put a lot of tension on their relationship. 

Main roles in this movie are for Javier Bardem, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Pfeiffer and Ed Harris. Unlike some other people, I really like Javier & Jennifer in their role in this movie. Their relationship felt kind of awkward. At some points, it even irritated me. But wasn't due to bad acting. It was a good way to make me as a viewer uncomfortable. To create some kind of tension around their relationship. 

Okay, If you haven't watched the movie: Skip this part of the review! I generally don't mind spoilers at all myself. But let me advise you on this one: Watch it without reading spoilers. Watch it as clueless as possible. Now I'm going to start with the spoilers. 

The first part of the movie didn't feel 'strange' to me. I remember that Sig said to me in the break: 'This movie is really weird'. At that point, I was waiting for the weirdness to happen. Ok, the tension was building up. There were definitely some strange moments. But I was waiting to be puzzled. Amazed. Confused. Much more needed to happen to live up to all the expectations I already had. So far, it was a nice movie about a couple with unexpected guests. And they seemed to have some relationship problems. 

And then, the second part started. And I have to tell you: It didn't disappoint me! I definitely went through the stages of being puzzled, amazed and confused haha. I really do love it. I loved the symbolism. I didn't read too much about the movie before watching it. I read nothing about the theme. So it was up to me to figure it out. And I'm so glad about it. Slowly realizing what the movie is actually about was great. Seeing all of the pieces of the puzzle come together. Darren did a great job in that in my opinion.   

I loved the movie. It was a heavy one. And I needed some time to process after watching it. As soon as the movie was done, I saw some people getting up and leaving instantly. I can not do that. I feel like I'm just waking up, or coming from a different planet. I always have to have a moment to return to the world hahaha. And for this movie, I definitely needed some time. I'm sure I'll buy this movie on DVD and I'll watch it again. My last piece of advice: Don't read to much about the movie and just watch it!