Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeffier
A woman, called ‘mother’ (Lawrence) and her husband (Bardem), only known as ‘Him’ live a quiet life in a secluded area. One day, their world goes completely off the rails when a stranger (Harris) comes by to stay the night.
That is supposedly the plot.
Director Darren Aronofsky, the visionary behind works such as Black Swan and The Wrestler, gives audiences one of his most ambitious, yet excruciating efforts to date.
Although the film’s ‘story’ has a profound meaning, it is buried under a string of chaotic sequences, and poor performances.
In its first two minutes, we begin with a burning corpse shedding a tear, then Javier Bardem placing a crystal on a small display, which brings life to a house in ruins.
Right off the bat, it establishes the strange energy felt throughout this huge home and its many occupants.
After the initial strange imagery, everything feels normal for a nice five minutes, until the first stranger arrives on the couple’s porch.
This stranger is the first of many who will raid through the home and cause havoc.
For the first hour, it is entertaining to see how the situation with the one guest escalates to the smaller additions of other guests.
Bardem welcomes the guests to their home, while Lawrence attempts to steer them away.
It makes the audience question the purpose for each character’s presence, considering we are given little to no information on their backgrounds in the first place.
This guessing game is fun momentarily, until it becomes an endurance test.
In the latter half, there are an obscene amount of guests that invade the home.
This results in a barrage of scenes where hordes of people flood the screen while they commit obscene acts.
There is so much noise and dysfunction happening all at once that its story feels like a distant memory.
People are throwing punches, destroying the house, chanting, and killing, all while Jennifer Lawrence is screaming at the top of her lungs.
At this point, it no longer feels like the Aronofsky film filled with profound allegories and messages, but rather a test for the audience to see how long they can withstand the hell breaking loose.
Not surprisingly, there were folks who walked out of the theater as the marathon of torture unfolded.
Among all the craziness happening, it would be assuring to say that this all-star cast is one of the redeeming qualities, but they only make things worse.
Harris and Pfeffier, known only as ‘man’ and ‘woman’ have decent chemistry, but their roles only last for twenty minutes.
On the other hand, Bardem and Lawrence do not mesh well. Bardem’s whispering dialogue is hard to understand, especially when there are riots occurring directly behind his back.
He adds a creepy dynamic to his character through suspicious facial expressions, but brings little to this role. As for Lawrence, anyone could have played her character.
About half of this film consists of tight shots with Lawrence roaming around the house and gasping at something in front of her.
However, she changes those gasps into screeching screams, which is not pleasant for the viewer’s ears or sanity.
Then again, the film in general may not be suitable for the viewer’s sanity.Beneath the chaos that ensues, there are, surprisingly, many allegories and messages to dissect.
With the masses flocking toward Bardem, there is a clear religious message. Additionally, Lawrence’s sacrifices and actions for Bardem show how much love can be squeezed out of one person.
The film circles around religion, love, and power, but the messages are hard to see among the pandemonium.
Oh mother!, is this a divisive film. It is one that people will either love or hate, with no between.
The film has a strong meaning, but its string of maddening events, along with poor performances becomes much too overbearing for the viewer.
After experiencing Aronofsky’s poor effort, one will feel motivated to put themselves in a quiet room to regain some sort of peace in their life.
However, they better keep an eye on any suspicious guests.
IMAGE TAKEN from TeaserTrailer.com
