Regardless of whether or not you enjoy the film mother!, it is a film that will inevitably be on your mind and the topic of conversation for quite a while. The film’s ultimate purpose is to evoke a raw feeling from you, and it will achieve that no matter what your initial feeling is after the credits begin to roll. You are meant to feel uncomfortable and uneasy as this film progresses. It is designed to make the audience react in a way not typically seen in theaters. No one will leave saying “meh” or “it was just ok.” There will either be major applause or absolute hatred for this film, hence why it is deemed a very divisive and controversial movie.
As an audience member, you need to accept the reality that nothing in mother! is real. Everything is a metaphor. Once you realize that, you’ll be able to appreciate what the film is trying to achieve. None of the characters have names and that is on purpose. No one has an identity in this story as they are meant to be a representation of something you need to fill the blanks on. While everyone will have their own interpretation of what they witnessed in mother!, here are my thoughts.
Jennifer Lawrence is mother = Mother Nature
Javier Bardem is Him = God
Ed Harris is man = Adam
Michelle Pfeiffer is woman = Eve
Domnhall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson are the man and woman’s children = Cain and Abel
The house = Earth
The crystal Javier Bardem’s character cherishes in the movie = the forbidden fruit
The people at the end = humans/God’s creation
The baby = Jesus Christ
Everything about this film has a reference or tie-in to something biblical. The story is not a lesson or warning to what will happen to Earth, but rather a look into the mirror as we reflect on what we are doing to God’s Earth based on our current behaviors.
The film begins with mother and Him living in peace and harmony together with nothing and no one to disturb them. Within 10 minutes or so into the film, a man arrives unannounced and Him welcomes the man with open arms. mother is quite weary but eventually becomes accepting of Him’s decision to house the guest. The man becomes sick overnight and Him comforts him throughout the late hours. In the scene where Ed Harris (man) is throwing up in the toilet, you see Javier Bardem (Him) comforting him and covering a wound right where the rib cage is. The next morning, a woman shows up and happens to be the man’s wife. She is very assertive and does however she pleases inside the couple’s house. She asks way too many forward and bold questions to mother, and has no respect for personal boundaries. She also becomes fascinated with a crystal ornament Him keeps inside his office and wants to touch it. mother refuses to allow the woman into her husband’s office, but when mother and Him aren’t looking, the woman goes and touches the crystal. This results in the crystal falling off the shelf and shattering. Do you see the Adam and Eve references?
The man and woman’s children arrive to the house to confront their parents on the will the man has created for after he passes away. Most of the arguing has to do about money and it quickly escalates. There is a major fight amongst the two brothers and the younger of the two ends up killing his older brother. mother is completely terrified by what she has just witnessed and the younger brother says to her, “You understand don’t you.” The younger brother is chased away by Him and flees to the outside where we as an audience never see him again. This makes the reference to Cain and Abel – the children of Adam and Eve.
Fast forward a bit – The ending of the film is a 25 minute “what am I watching” cluster, but it calls out the reality of our world in a frightening way. Him has now written a new book (Javier Bardem plays a writer in the movie) shortly after his wife became pregnant. When it is published, hundreds of people flock to the house to meet him and get his autograph. They act as if he is the Messiah and are overwhelmed by their emotions just by being in his presence. The amount of people increase drastically, but Him is loving every moment of it and allowing them to come inside. mother is quickly panicking and at this point, all she cares about is her unborn child and her personal well-being. The people do whatever they wish, and will not listen to mother’s pleas for respect in the house. Due to the increase of people, tensions quickly rise amongst them as they all desire to see and meet Him. Eventually this leads to absolute chaos. We see protests, we see murdering, we see looting, we see war, we see pain, we see significant damage to the house, etc.
mother’s emotional state has placed her into labor, and Him and mother immediately rush to a quiet room. Him is with mother for the delivery and is so happy to meet his new son after he is born entirely healthy. Him wants to hold the baby and show his son to everyone. mother will not allow this and holds her baby protectively as she believes all Him cares about is himself and the people in their home. Him sits and stares at mother with anger and stubbornness until she falls asleep. Once she falls asleep, Him takes the baby and shows him off to their guests. mother wakes up and rushes to get her baby back. The baby is being passed around by many hands in the air and is eventually killed by the carelessness of the people. They then take the baby in silence and consume the body and blood. mother is consumed with rage and destroys the entire house and everyone in it despite Him’s pleas to her to forgive the people for what they did. Do you see the references to Jesus? He died for the people and now we consume his “body and blood” whenever we go to church and honor him. God forgave the people who killed his son on Good Friday. “Forgive them Father for they know not what they are doing.”
Him and mother survive her destruction of the house and Him (completely unharmed) carefully removes mother’s heart as she is moments away from death (she is not surviving her own destruction). The heart becomes a new crystal and after he places the crystal onto his shelf, the house is restored and a new mother emerges.
My interpretation of this film in addition to what I already wrote is that despite what we the people do on God’s Earth, he will always love us, cherish us, and forgive us. Mother Nature in the meantime….not so much. She cannot understand why God is this way and frankly does not want anyone messing around in her home. If it was up to Mother Nature, she would destroy all of those who are not respecting what God created. God would then have to recreate Earth from Mother Nature’s cleansing. Sound a little too close to home with everything going on right now doesn’t it?
I very much enjoyed the film and believe it is an incredible artistic “push” to movie making boundaries. This is that movie that will be studied in future cinema classes for years to come, and be used as inspiration for the next generation of screenwriters and directors. This is a very controversial film and one that will definitely evoke raw emotion from the audience. If you take the movie for face value, you will not enjoy it as it makes no sense. But when you dig into it and figure out the giant metaphor the story is portraying, you may go “Ahhh ok that makes more sense.” You may either then like the film or still feel it’s an awful movie. Regardless, mother! is unlike any other film and redefines the meaning of making bold, controversial, and colorful statements via cinema. This is not a movie you’ll want to pop in at any given moment and watch over and over again after its been released on home video. One viewing is probably enough, but I applaud the director for taking an incredible risk.
Coffee Talk With Lou Lou 