Mother! (2017)

Well fuck, MEN, if you want (ha!) to feel what it’s truly like to be a woman...watch this film. Women - holy fuck. I think this was the most anxiety-inducing film I’ve ever seen. Everything she goes through is what we women go through on a daily, constant basis. I don’t even think it’s worth mentioning that she goes through it on a heightened basis, because THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE.

Jennifer Lawrence stars as Mother, with Javier Bardem as her poet husband. They live in a large beautiful home in the country that she is remodeling for Him while he tries to work on his next poem. He is lacking inspiration and allows a man and his family to come into their home, and as Von Trier’s fox says, “chaos reigns.” The film morphs into an agonizing tale of disruption, violence and dismissal.

I saw this film a bit late, and it happened to come on the day that the New York Times article came out exposing Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator. Not that I need an example of a man abusing his power, prowling on the women around them and then silencing them, but I couldn’t help but have it in the back of my mind while watching this. Weinstein used his powerful position as a successful, rich man to prey on aspiring actresses and female industry professionals in exchange for the promise of a career boost. Instead, they walked away scarred and forced into silence with money and big lawyers. There’s a moment in the film where I think Aronofsky decided to play the obvious card, just in case it was going over anyone’s head. A man in her home tries to give her his number and she refuses. He pushes and pushes and when she continues to turn him down he says something to the effect of “fuck off cunt.” I imagine Weinstein has had many similar conversations.

Jennifer Lawrence’s character gives everything she has to her husband, and it is never enough. She creates a home, a loving encouraging space for her lover to create his poetry, she creates LIFE, and it is not enough. She is young and beautiful and he still does not want her physically. The only time he makes love to her it is rabid and aggressive and only because she challenged him. This is not to say that a man needs a woman to fulfill him. This can translate to the women giving everything to their jobs, to politics, to art, everything, and still not being valued or recognized enough.

Throughout the film, her space is invaded, she is grabbed and aggressively hit on by men. She is belittled, silenced and ignored. She is only listened to when she is angry and violent, and even then, she is still ultimately dismissed. Watching this is maddening, but I left feeling invigorated that a film like this was made.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpICoc65uh0