If you are debating whether to see this film, it is definitely worth a shot considering how many people absolutely love it because you might love it too! On the other hand, if you have the feeling Mother might not be for you given what you've already heard about it, then feel free to skip out because you're probably right.
To start, everyone should go into this film expecting to be very uncomfortable. What you should not expect is a true horror movie like what it was advertised as. There is an excessive amount of religious symbolism within the film along with an added, mostly unnecessary, plot twist. Creators threw in everything but the kitchen sink.
The best thing about the film is the camera work. The wide shots of the outside of Him and Mother's house showing how large it is followed by close-up shots of Lawrence's face as she walks around inside emphasize just how claustrophobic and constrained she feels throughout the movie. These shots do a lot to establish the atmosphere and are one of the more clever ways the director created a sense of unease and discomfort. Despite this and Lawrence and Bardem's performances, the film is still lacking because it tried to do too much.
The audience is beaten over the head with the religious imagery. While it makes sense for God (Him) to be in control and drag Mother Nature (Mother) along for the ride and to have Mother's outbursts represent the way the natural environment reacts to being forcibly altered by humans (represented by the other characters destroying her home), it leans on the metaphor too hard. Mother's extremely passive personality and delayed reactions despite her clear exasperation may be representative of how Mother Nature - an inhuman force - rolls with the punches until being acted upon from the outside by irreparable damage, but they don't translate well to a human being.
Lawrence's character is desperately uncomfortable with the actions of her husband and the other characters. When she snaps, she justifiably explodes, but it is obnoxious how much it takes for her to react. The intent is to show she is a force to be reckoned with when pushed too far, but given the way she practically cowers around Him and goes back to being complacent nearly immediately, she isn't believable as a personified character. Her complacency in the face of extreme situations is clearly meant to frustrate viewers but comes across as if the writer's desire to make people uncomfortable overtook the actual story. It also makes the film more inaccessible to many viewers who may not understand the "deeper meaning" of every moment, which is why so many viewers find the film to be pretentious.
Without giving too much away, the added twist at the end was also unnecessary. It wasn't a bad ending, but the existential dread and the potential religious implications of the final minutes come across as another unnecessary metaphor since creators included everything but the kitchen sink by jam packing the rest of the runtime. Because the rest of the film beat the metaphor to death first, it could've simply ended after what Mother does when she reaches her breaking point without adding further symbolism. With that said, I do find the twist rather interesting, and the movie's final image adds to the broader impacts of Him's actions and is artfully unsettling, so it would've been a better movie overall if the rest of the religious symbolism weren't so severe, which would make the final seconds into an interesting, thought-provoking conclusion rather than just another way of making viewers uncomfortable.
To start, everyone should go into this film expecting to be very uncomfortable. What you should not expect is a true horror movie like what it was advertised as. There is an excessive amount of religious symbolism within the film along with an added, mostly unnecessary, plot twist. Creators threw in everything but the kitchen sink.
The best thing about the film is the camera work. The wide shots of the outside of Him and Mother's house showing how large it is followed by close-up shots of Lawrence's face as she walks around inside emphasize just how claustrophobic and constrained she feels throughout the movie. These shots do a lot to establish the atmosphere and are one of the more clever ways the director created a sense of unease and discomfort. Despite this and Lawrence and Bardem's performances, the film is still lacking because it tried to do too much.
The audience is beaten over the head with the religious imagery. While it makes sense for God (Him) to be in control and drag Mother Nature (Mother) along for the ride and to have Mother's outbursts represent the way the natural environment reacts to being forcibly altered by humans (represented by the other characters destroying her home), it leans on the metaphor too hard. Mother's extremely passive personality and delayed reactions despite her clear exasperation may be representative of how Mother Nature - an inhuman force - rolls with the punches until being acted upon from the outside by irreparable damage, but they don't translate well to a human being.
Lawrence's character is desperately uncomfortable with the actions of her husband and the other characters. When she snaps, she justifiably explodes, but it is obnoxious how much it takes for her to react. The intent is to show she is a force to be reckoned with when pushed too far, but given the way she practically cowers around Him and goes back to being complacent nearly immediately, she isn't believable as a personified character. Her complacency in the face of extreme situations is clearly meant to frustrate viewers but comes across as if the writer's desire to make people uncomfortable overtook the actual story. It also makes the film more inaccessible to many viewers who may not understand the "deeper meaning" of every moment, which is why so many viewers find the film to be pretentious.
Without giving too much away, the added twist at the end was also unnecessary. It wasn't a bad ending, but the existential dread and the potential religious implications of the final minutes come across as another unnecessary metaphor since creators included everything but the kitchen sink by jam packing the rest of the runtime. Because the rest of the film beat the metaphor to death first, it could've simply ended after what Mother does when she reaches her breaking point without adding further symbolism. With that said, I do find the twist rather interesting, and the movie's final image adds to the broader impacts of Him's actions and is artfully unsettling, so it would've been a better movie overall if the rest of the religious symbolism weren't so severe, which would make the final seconds into an interesting, thought-provoking conclusion rather than just another way of making viewers uncomfortable.
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