I have a nagging feeling that the raves come from people in their 20's and/or younger. I maybe wrong but the debate erupting from this movie reeks of youth. Something similar happened with Terrence Malnick's The Tree Of Life. People either loved it or hated it. From my own personal POV the only different between The Tree Of Life and Mother! is that The Tree Of Life was a masterpiece without any visual cope outs and, perhaps, the only commercial concession were in big star names but even then Brad Pitt gives one of the best performances of his career. Mother ! Is not a masterpiece, not to me anyway. I couldn't connect. Was it a comedy of the absurd? When I saw all the people dancing and partying in the house I had a flash back to Blake Edwards's "The Party"Jennifer Lawrence is a truly gifted actress and beautiful to boot and, quite clearly, she put herself in Darren Aronfski's hands, She, the mother, calls out "Baby"? Hoping to find her husband - She is a Saint Joan half burned already. That truly puzzled me. Can you please give us time to connect with her? A few minutes. If you remember Mia Farrow's Rosemary - She was, emotionally, so far away from what she's about to confront. Polanski takes the audience through her journey and we're with her, every step of the way. What makes it so terrifying is the veil of normalcy that surrounds the proceedings. In Mother, the surreal takes over the atmosphere and destroys it. We can keep a distance without really participating. The same can be said of Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer - They are a welcome, semi-camp addition at the perfect time and then, they disappear. The glory of Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer in Rosemary's Baby is that their intrusion is taken all the way through to extraordinary results. And Javier Bardem/John Cassavetes? If you're interested watch Rosemary's Baby again like I did last night, 24 hours after seeing Mother!and then you tell me. In my modest opinion one is a flawless masterpiece the other is just okay.
