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Truth be told, this week hasn't been the easiest of "narrow-downs" for my Halloween Special. As far as "Now Playing" reviews went, I had a couple of options. I could A) go see 'Flatliners' (the original plan), which has been rated so low it's almost stunning, or B) hop on the controversy train and check out 'mother!' After all, it's highly advertised as a horror/thriller, so it comes close enough to fitting my "Halloween theme"... I guess. I'm gonna go ahead and just say that of the movies I'm reviewing this month, this is by far the strangest as far as category goes. Anyway, I always enjoy the opportunity to check something really that's so split down the middle as far as reviews go. It's an ample opportunity to offer my own opinion within a sea of opinions that differ from one another. The thing is, at this point in the game, 'mother!' is about ready to leave theaters, and there's not a whole lot I can say that hasn't been said yet. On the surface, we have a happy couple played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. These guys already provide their own controversy by being so far apart in age, ignoring the "half your age plus 7" rule (27 and 48 at this point, respectively) BUT there's a reason for that, which I'll get to later. Anyway, it's essentially these two trying to live their lives in a beautiful home in the country. However, the house gets overtaken by unwanted visitors who tend to ignore Jennifer's every rule of the house. They have come from far and wide to praise Bardem as "The Poet"; a great writer. Meanwhile, Jennifer's just struggling to pull his attention away from his worshipers to focus on her, their solitude and happiness - especially after she gets pregnant. The whole thing moves pretty fast, it's really damn strange, and full of symbolism. Generally speaking, if one doesn't understand the symbolism, the movie's one big hot mess of WTF. I will tell you right now that I fully understand why it's so split down the middle, review-wise. Now, I won't go into depth on everything here, but one almost NEEDS to go into this movie with the following word in mind "Bible". Do that, and you'll probably figure it all out as it unfolds, AND it will give you some idea as to the reason for their age gap I mentioned before. Each of them represents a certain something. From there, it's up to you to decide whether or not it was good or bad. You're reading this, however, to see what my opinion is on the film. Well, I actually went into this knowing what it was all an allegory for, having seen and read a few reviews for it already. I'll give Aronofsky this - it was clever! Going in, knowing what I knew, I was able to piece together quite a lot of it. However, this is just one of those movies that I managed to get, but not fully enjoy. It has a certain respect from me, but that doesn't mean I actually liked it. If I went into this not knowing what I knew, I'd have been incredibly lost. I'm not altogether sure that I would have picked up on the right symbolism for myself Plus there's just some imagery here that's truly disturbing. If that's what Aronofsky was trying to do, fine, but that doesn't mean it's for me. Mr. Aronofsky has always been a sort of enigma of a director for yours truly. 'Requiem for a Dream' is full of disturbing imagery too, but I actually love that movie. 'Black Swan' was really strange and out there, but I thought it's symbolism was strong and I enjoyed it. 'mother!', I hate to say, feels preachy more than anything. The symbolism here is certainly clever, but he's really throwing his own messages about man's relationship with God and the Earth at us through the whole movie. It also just gets frustrating at times. There's something about people who don't listen that just boils my skin. It was actually the main reason I wasn't a fan of the first 'Paranormal Activity'. Stubborn attitudes just plain piss me off, and this movie is LOADED with it! To some, this movie will be a masterful work of art that invokes conversation, both negative and positive. To others' it's gonna be the hot mess of WTF that I had mentioned before. For me, I just think if you like Aronofsky, there's better titles to choose from. I won't fully bring this one down, because when it's all said and done, the symbolism here IS still clever. BUT it comes off as sort of pretentious this time around. My faith remains, however, that he'll come up with something else still artsy, but more enjoyable. 2/5
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