mother!: what the duck?

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.

Including about TV shows I’ve watched.

And movies.   I like the occasional movie.

It’s a movie that I’ve watched, tonight.

The 2017 film, mother!: written and directed by Darren Aronovsky.

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.

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!
★★☆☆