In her Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook and Winter Bone glory days, Jennifer Lawrence was box office gold and the critics darling.
Recent misfires like Passengers and Serena were not hits but the actress still escaped taking any of the blame.
She has chellenged and delighted audiences and critics alike throughout her career, but Mother! looks like the first time she will truly disturb and traumatise them.
Mother! was booed at the Venice Film Festival but the first official reviews have been universally glowing – although they still warn that the movie and its “sickeningly glorious” subject matter may be hard to sit through and some feel it may elevate style over substance.
MOTHER! REVIEWS ROUND-UP NEXT:
The Daily Beast:
Aronofsky has long taken a certain sadistic glee in following his exquisite female subjects to the depths of hell, whether it be Natalie Portman’s obsessive ballerina in Black Swan or Jennifer Connelly’s desperate druggie in Requiem for a Dream. But the torment brought upon Lawrence’s Mother is something else entirely. She is robbed of her voice, her agency, and ultimately her body as the hordes… descend on her Eden, tearing it to pieces. It is a sickeningly glorious mess.
Variety:
By all means, go to “mother!” and enjoy its roller-coaster-of-weird exhibitionism. But be afraid, very afraid, only if you’re hoping to see a movie that’s as honestly disquieting as it is showy.
Screen International:
A devouring and restless experience: a creative surge that’s like the lancing of a boil, releasing a torrent of despair and disgust for the greedy chaos of society today as well as a self-loathing portrait of the artist as an emotional succubus.
The Hollywood Reporter:
A very Rosemary’s Baby-like intimate horror tale that definitely grabs your attention and eventually soars well over the top to make the bold concluding statement that, for some creators, art is more important than life.
indieWire:
Mother! begins as a slow burn and builds toward a furious blaze. Awash in both religious and contemporary political imagery, Darren Aronofsky’s allusive film opens itself to a number of allegorical readings, but it also works as a straight-ahead head rush.
Aronofsky doesn’t lean toward claustrophobia. He externalizes his lead character’s horror into the foundations of the house. The house bleeds, it has oddly human-looking orifices, it has a beating heart. Aronofsky sends his characters into a nightmarish dreamscape that grows and evolves, particularly in the bonkers last third, which builds in pitch, scope, and sheer cinematic audacity, picking up overt religious and political resonance.
Mother! is out in UK cinemas on September 15