21st January, 2018.
No, really, I’m a duck … !
Yeah … quack, quack … !
Ahem … !
Just in case you hadn’t realised … ?
That’s me in that introduction.
Fresh off of tonight’s movie action.
~≈§≈~
Let me briefly introduce myself, here, if I can … ?
My name’s Paul: also known — for various reasons — as Nik Nak.
I’m — currently — working in a call centre: but have worked in pubs, fast food gaffs, toyshops … and ran pub quizzes.
I’ve also blogged about all and sundry: for the past decade.
It’s a movie that I’ve watched, tonight.
Something I’d fancied seeing, as two previous Aronovsky films — π and Black Swan — had mildly impressed me.
And?
Strange … ?
~≈§≈~
mother! is set in a house in an isolated glade: owned by an unnamed poet — only referred to as Him, played by Javier Bardem — that’s been burnt down by a fire.
And being reconstructed by his equally unnamed wife — referred to as mother, and played by Jennifer Lawrence — who’s throughly enjoying the quiet life.
Until one day … ?
Their lives are interrupted by uninvited guests.
A dying, equalling unnamed, doctor — ‘Man’, played by Ed Harris — and his wife, ‘Woman,’ Michelle Pfeiffer.
Which is where …
Things …
Get …
Disjointed …
And mother’s life is irreparably changed …
~≈§≈~
Now …
Strange … ?
Strange is the word.
Or one word, certainly.
The other one I’d use?
Is ‘dream-like.’
Aronovsky has written and directed mother! so that it comes across with the disjointedness of a waking dream, with jumps from one line to another, Him disappearing from one door to come in at another, and discussions and conversations taking different directions: seemingly at random, and seemingly with no apparent cause.
mother get’s abruptly pregnant, for example: immediately after after a tastefully rough bedroom scene.
Him writing a poem which never, seemingly, leaves the house … only for his publisher to phone to say how much she liked it.
Leaving mother very confused: as this is seconds after she’s given her opinion of it.
Confusing?
Well made?
The answer’s got to be yes: to both questions.
~≈§≈~
Now …
You’re possibly saying “Paul, what did you think of mother! … ?”
Oh, that’s a tough one.
Frankly?
That really is tough …
Right now, I don’t know that I could tell you I liked it.
It is very well made: with — possibly — a lot of depth, meaning, and philosophy there, if you chose to look for it.
But I think it’s a film I found mildly confusing.
Not that I mind confusing, occasionally. I’m a fan of 1960s version of The Prisoner, which some will tell you is incredibly confusing.
And of Denis Potter’s The Singing Detective: which some will tell you is just as confusing.
Not that I mind confusing, occasionally. I’m a fan of 1960s version of The Prisoner, which some will tell you is incredibly confusing.
And of Denis Potter’s The Singing Detective: which some will tell you is just as confusing.
Both of which? Both of which I found straight-forward, compared to mother!: even though both The Prisoner and mother! — in their final scenes — loop back around to their respective starts, after convoluted finales.
Personally?
mother!’s only getting two stars from me.
It’s a well crafted movie: and one that is, with its dreamlike logic, worth watching at least once.
You might take to it.
But, ultimately?
mother! wasn’t for me.
mother!
★★☆☆
No comments:
Post a Comment