You give and you give and you give. It's just never enough.

mother! (2017)

7.0/10 on IMDb
68% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe, BUT
Proceed at your own risk

Watch it if you: Are intrigued by the trailer;
Are a fan of the director;
Aren't expecting a horror home invasion movie;
Instead, are keen for an arthouse film with ~deeper meaning~
I decided against using my usual format for movie reviews for this movie, because it's a difficult one to place.

If you watch the trailer, it looks like a creepy home invasion psychological thriller, but the actual movie is really different.

It's more of an arthouse type of movie where there's a huge metaphor and every scene has a deeper meaning to it, but if you don't know the metaphor then the entire movie is extremely confusing, and possibly also a little terrible to watch. So, basically, if you can appreciate arthouse movies, then you might like it, but for the more mainstream viewer, it's potentially the worst film ever.

The film is chaotic, violent, and mind-boggling. One article said, "Co-star Ed Harris joked, “I’m still not quite sure what to think of it all.” Deadpanned Javier Bardem: “Basically I did not know what I was doing . . . I don’t even really speak English.”

For myself, watching the movie was really weird. I knew one piece of the allegory because of an interview Jennifer Lawrence did, but I didn't realise other bits of symbolism until towards the end of the movie. The movie was so fast paced and confusing, though, that I didn't really have time to think about the bigger picture until I walked out of the movie. Then suddenly, it clicked, and I think the movie makes a fantastic metaphor for it all. I think it's a movie that would be really fun to analyse in English class, and yes, I am aware of how nerdy that makes me sound.

I kinda want to watch it again, to fully understand the metaphor, so I think it would be good to know the metaphor going in, but since I didn't do that I don't know whether it ruins the fun by taking away your realisation of what it all means.

Anyhoo, the rest of this review is going to be spoilers breaking down the film, so if you think you want to know the metaphor going in, then proceed. If not, I do recommend this film, followed by some reading up of what it all meant, but I would warn you to proceed at your own risk, because this film is... bizarre.

Click to show/hide spoilers:

So there are two main themes of this film:

1. The film is a biblical metaphor for humanity's sinful nature
   
2. The film is a message warning us of the dangers of neglecting our planet Earth
   

The movie starts off with an image of a lady being burnt, a previous apocalypse. Followed by God (Javier Bardem's character) restoring life through the heart of mother nature (or mother earth, I can't decide, played by Jennifer Lawrence). This restores the planet earth (the house) back to an Eden-like paradise ("I want to make this a paradise for him," paraphrased). Mother earth is clothed in white; she is clean, fresh, and pure. She never leaves the house.

God struggles to write; he struggles to create. He manages to write something down and suddenly a man (Adam, the first man, played by Ed Harris) appears.

Later on, his wife, Eve (played by Michelle Pfeiffer, who still looks amazingly gorgeous despite being nearly 60 years old) appears. I also read somewhere that the thing that gets flushed down the toilet is part of Adam's rib, because it occurs after Adam first meets God, they seem to do some sort of trade, he has a bruise on his back, he vomits in the toilet, then the next day Eve appears. If someone can explain to me why exactly it had to be a creature in the toilet, that'd be great.

Where Adam is considerate and slightly hesitant to intrude on the couple, Eve is entitled, arrogant, and sinful. She is constantly drawn towards the study room containing the previous mother nature's heart, despite God not wanting anyone to touch it, and not wanting anyone to be in that room without him.

Her sinful curiosity ends up in her breaking the stone (eating the Forbidden Fruit), which results in the wrath of God. God banishes them from Eden (boarding up the doors to the study), but still loves them enough to allow them to live in the other parts of Earth.

Cain and Abel appear, with Cain murdering his brother, spilling blood on Earth. God appears to abandon mother earth (when he takes the son to the hospital and leaves mother earth vulnerable to Cain and therefore vulnerable to more sin) and she has to clean up the mess in distraught, but no matter how hard she tries, she cannot clear the sin from Earth.

The funeral scene is resemblant of Noah and his friends (or just other humans in general) being invited to closeness with God, yet these humans are disobedient and neglectful of mother earth (Jennifer Lawrence here speaks with a really sweet voice which I haven't heard her use before; she sounds super innocent and even youthful, yet everyone treats her with disgust). They feel insulted and laugh when mother nature tells them that the room is 'her' room, because they feel entitled to a share of mother earth despite not doing anything to contribute to it. Mother earth did all the work in the house, making it perfect and 'a paradise', these humans do nothing and barge in as if they own it already.

Mother tells the humans not to sit on the sink yet the humans, ever sinful, constantly disobey her, even jumping on the sink to spite her. The sinful actions of the humans starts to cause damage to the Earth, and a great flood occurs and humans are (nearly) eradicated (Noah's flood).

During this, Eve gives a lot of side eye to mother nature, because Eve suffered a lot after being abandoned from Eden (in the Bible, Eve eating the Forbidden Fruit results in all women having pregnancy and labour pain while giving birth; thanks Eve). Eve is resentful towards Mother Nature. 

Soon, Mother Nature is pregnant with baby Jesus in her, and this inspires God to write the Bible. Mother Nature throws away the yellow powder she has been taking every time she received pains. What is that yellow powder? I don't know, but I read somewhere it could be ambrosia, the nectar or food only for the gods. I'm not sure about this though because she does chuck it away once she's pregnant as if it is harmful to baby Jesus.

Anyway, as soon as God finishes the Bible, his publisher, the Herald, spreads the word of God to the masses and they love him. What ensues is a whole lot of focus and attention on God. Mother Nature celebrates for God, but it's not enough for him. God doesn't want the love or attention that Mother Nature provides, he wants the love, reverence, and blind adoration that Humans can give to him. God abandons Mother Nature again, not thinking of her when he tells the Humans that the house (Earth) is all for them to share. God is made out to be the bad guy, wanting attention and religious devotion and worship at the expense of Mother Nature and Earth ("They've come to see me!").

The Humans listen to this and feel entitled to everything in the house, not taking a second's moment to claim pieces of Earth for themselves, fighting, shedding blood, and even destroying Earth in the process. They take for granted all the hard work that Mother Nature has put into this planet, and they rip the earth apart. More and more people start coming to the house as more people start following the Faith, although they don't respect it at all and they neglect and even despise or look down upon Mother Nature (seriously, everyone in this movie was such a dick to Jennifer Lawrence!).

What happens in the fever dream... I can't even remember. I read somewhere that all ten of the plagues that Moses brings down on Pharoah make a brief appearance but I honestly can't think of a single one of them except the frog that jumps out of the basement cellar.

Anyway the fever dream happens and from what I remember there seems to be symbols of overpopulation, the beginnings of religious behaviour and cults, humans fighting against humans, police storming in (are these the Roman soldiers?), war and terrorism occur. Kristen Wiig is the Herald, she makes a confusing cameo just to add to the chaos of the fever dream (kind of like how Domnhall Gleeson's appearance was such a shock in such a shocking scene). She then starts executing people which might be a reflection of the behaviours of religious followers/leaders against non-believers. She also orders people to kill Mother Earth.

There's also a brief glimpse in hope for humanity, with one of the police officers looking at pregnant Mother Earth and worrying for her. He attempts to lead her to safety, protects her from a bomb, but ends up getting shot in the head when he tries to care for her.

Jesus is born, and Mother Nature protects him from God, but eventually God steals Jesus and shows him to the world. The people love Jesus and worship him, but in their haste and irresponsibility they SNAP HIS NECK (which was so traumatic by the way!), killing him like how Jesus was crucified on the cross.

They rip his body apart and eat his body and drink his blood (which is reflecting the practice of communion where you drink wine, which symbolises the blood of Christ, and you eat bread, which symbolises the body of Christ).

Mother Nature loses her shit and starts killing humans. The humans retaliate and beat up and destroy Mother Nature. At this stage she can feel the Earth losing its life, and the house starts to collapse. God implores Mother Earth to forgive the humans, but she refuses. He tries to protect her from the Humans but she in turn abandons him. She realises that God never loved Mother Nature or Planet Earth as much as they loved him. He only loved how much the Earth was willing to provide for him, but he never provided back.

Mother Nature decides to destroy Planet Earth. She is badly hurt during this process. God implies that he is trapped in this destiny of needing to create things, and so he will keep creating, because that is what he does. Mother Nature, ever loving, still has life and love inside of her. God takes this love she has and recreates the earth again, starting it all over again in a show of reincarnation.

Ultimately, humanity never learns (and apparently God never learns too), and history repeats itself.

I feel like I just wrote a HSC worthy essay in that spoiler section. Once you know the metaphor, I think the film feels pretty straightforward, but the film is still pretty insane, and definitely not an easy watch.