I just finished watching Darren Aronowski’s new film "Mother! "I don’t know if it’s because of the movie theater. The resolution of the film is very low. It often reminds you of old movies from the last century that were not in the digital age. However, in these short two hours, Jennifer Lawrence dedicated a movie with an outstanding performance that makes people always nervous.
The movie rating is 18, which is also the highest rating that can be found here. The reason for rating is strong violent. Throughout the article, the violence is far less serious. The more likely reason is political sensitivity.
Of course, just like the incomprehensible trailer at the beginning of the movie, the complexity of the movie itself can be called the pinnacle. It is not about how high the concept or how complicated the timeline is, but the movie itself is a kind of one. A collection of fables, metaphors and symbols, you can compare it with the death of a lobster or a holy deer. As for all the metaphorical fragments in the movie, you know that they are part of a complete puzzle, but they contradict each other and contradict each other, so that you cannot fully interpret the movie in a single way.
However, I still try to interpret this movie from all aspects.
Reading attention! The following content has spoilers.
1. Summary of the plot
I think before writing this analysis, it is necessary to state the main part of the movie, so that everyone can have an overview of the movie, and on the other hand, you can sort out the plot.
I divided the video into two parts.
The first part, I call it, Uninvited Guest.
"uninvited guest"
The heroine played by Jennifer Lawrence is called mother, which is mother, and the heroine played by Javier Baden, if you open the list of actors, you will find that his name is him, which is him.
The house slowly recovered from the ashes, and a mother woke up leisurely.
His mother and him lived in a house with a beautiful environment and far away from the crowds. He was a writer and had written several good works. Unfortunately, the time has passed and the inspiration is now exhausted. The mother is the builder of their house, she takes care of everything in the house every day.
One night, a man who claimed to be a doctor came to stay overnight. This man, whose name was man, we called him a man. He happily welcomed the man's stay and showed him to visit. His mother also accepted the man's request for temporary residence, and her mother found that the man always coughed.
On the second day, a lady knocked on the door of the room. This lady is a woman, which is also called a woman. The woman is the man’s wife, and although the mother was reluctant, the woman stayed at his kind invitation. The mother didn’t like this woman. She was slick, and would make her well-managed family uncomfortable. Mess.
At the moment when neither his mother nor he noticed, the man and the woman smashed the gem he cherished. He angrily drove them out of the room where the gems were stored and sealed the room to death. However, at this time, The two sons of a man and a woman came one after another. It turned out that the man was a fan of him and was about to die, so he left a suicide note to find him, and one of the sons was not satisfied with the suicide note, so he came and was in chaos. The elder son severely injured the younger son and ran away. He and the man and the woman took the dying son to the hospital, leaving the mother alone.
Mother sorted the blood stains in the room, but found that there was a piece that could not be wiped off. Following the hole that was rotted by blood, her mother found a secret room in the basement.
He finally came back, but the calm did not last long. The men and women decided to hold a memorial ceremony in his home because of the death of their son. More and more people came, and finally they became uncontrollable. I sat down in the pool regardless of my mother's persuasion, and the gushing water scared everyone away.
After that, his mother had a good time with him.
The second part, I called it "Death of the Holy Child"
The mother is pregnant.
And he was inspired by the incident of the uninvited guest, everything was developing in the direction of happiness, no bad things happened, his mother threw away the anti-depressant medicine, and the broken hole in the floor was sealed...
The mother felt the child's movements in the belly, and he also completed his work, although the first thing he told was his female agent.
But this is not a problem. My mother made a great dinner and wanted to celebrate his success with him.
On the eve of dinner, a few fans came to his door and wanted to see him who became famous. After that, the media and more fans arrived. His mother closed the door and let him interview by himself, not wanting all kinds of unknown sources. People did not know when they sneaked into her house and occupied the magpie's nest under the banner of "sharing", ate the dinner carefully prepared by her mother and even started stealing things.
He entered the house and continued to sign, paying no attention to the intensifying behavior of others in the room. The theft in the room had now become looting, and he was still chatting with fans happily.
The mother saw everything but did not have the ability to stop it. Soon, more things happened. The person who accidentally stained his head with ink established a religion, and the other mobs who broke into the house started with the police. confrontation.
Everything was not over. The violence continued to escalate. Many people were caught and locked up in barbed wire. Terrorists appeared in the house who executed others at will. Then the army entered, but to no avail.
The mother was finally about to give birth, but the situation outside the house was so turbulent, as smoky as after the disaster, the male protagonist opened the sealed room that was once filled with gems, and finally found a little peace with his mother.
It's a boy.
His mother wanted him to drive away the people outside, but the believers outside brought fruits and towels, and he didn't want to drive away his fans. The mother was desperate, and she was unwilling to hand over the child to her father.
However, after a stalemate for a few days, he took advantage of his mother's sleep and took the child out of the room. The mother chased him out when he found out, but the child had passed away in the hands of believers. When she approached, he found that the child had been eaten.
The ashen-hearted mother killed several believers and was beaten wildly. He did not accuse those believers when he saved his mother. Instead, he was full of forgiveness. The mother was desperate and found the lighter of the uninvited man and ran to the basement. In his secret room, the large oil barrel inside was ignited, and with the explosion that shocked the world, everything turned into ashes.
except him.
He held his dying mother, dug out her heart, opened it, revealing the gems inside, he put the gems, the house was restored, and the other mother woke up leisurely.
2. Inside and outside the Garden of Eden
Since there are too many things involved in the plot, and there is really no explanation that can run through the entire plot, so I will focus on a few important puzzles first, and these few points can roughly explain the whole plot. contour.
One of the puzzles is naturally the religious metaphor.
The first half of the uninvited guest, in my opinion, is the story of God and Adam and Eve.
In the movie, the men and women who came to the house one after another are called man and woman. This is what Adam and Eve call each other. Then God, in this scenario, is probably the male protagonist "him".
The man played by Ed Harris is already very sick, and when he coughed violently, his mother saw a scar on his ribs, which reminded me that the birth of Eve was when God took Adam’s rib. Became Eve, so in the movie, the next morning, the "Eve" appeared at the door.
The most well-known story of Adam and Eve is probably about stealing the forbidden fruit on the tree of good and evil, and in the movie, it is touching the most beloved gem of the male host. The male protagonist was very vigilant before letting the man touch the gems, and the mother had also warned the woman not to let her go to that room. However, the two of them couldn't resist the temptation and wanted to take a look at the beautiful gem. After breaking it by mistake, the host was furious and sealed the room, as if God had driven Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.
Naturally, the woman in the movie is actually a symbol of "sin" and "chaos". Her arrival first brought a messy breakfast and burns, and then made lemon juice and made a mess on the table. Regarding sin, in fact, Mainly because of the sin of eroticism, she hoped that her mother's dress would be more provocative, and she would linger with the man after she smashed the gem.
A woman is a sin, and a man is an individual who can't stand the temptation. That cigarette is a good proof that he is still smoking secretly after being refused to smoke indoors.
As for the mid-section of the uninvited guest, the children of the man and the woman are actually very similar to the two children of Adam and Eve.
The two children of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, are also brothers. Because their brother Cain was jealous of the unfair treatment, he killed his brother Abel. This plot is very similar to the movie.
In the second half of the uninvited guest, the mother drove all the intruders away. In fact, it can be regarded as a cleansing with a religious nature, that is to say, the flood.
God saw that the sins of human beings on the ground were great, so he sent a flood to destroy all things and wash away sins. In the movie, people are having fun in the room and acting arbitrarily. At first they converged and then became unrestrained. After the mother's repeated requests were useless, the flood finally came and people flocked to evacuate.
And in this part, it is obvious that the mother is God, or Gaia (Mother Earth), and the closer we are, the more we can find the separation of the mother and his role in the setting. It can be said that the two finally ran away from each other. , Into two extremes.
The role of mother, in the fragment of "Death of the Holy Child", becomes the mother of the birth of the Holy Child, and we can also call her the Virgin.
As for the child she gave birth at the end of the film, it is naturally the Holy Child, and the Holy Child can be called the Holy Child, which means Jesus.
Therefore, the child who was killed at birth actually alluded to the death of Jesus, but this time Jesus was accidentally killed by his fanatical believers. After the killing, he even shared his flesh. This is in the film. It should be the most cruel scene, this kind of almost blasphemous behavior naturally caused the mother to explode, first with many people with blades, and then devouring all living beings with flames.
3. Paradise Architect
The second piece of the puzzle is the connection between the house and the mother.
For most of the movie, the mother thought that she renovated the original dilapidated house. In fact, it can be said that the jewel in the heart of each mother restores the house and gives birth to a new mother, this mother. Will continue to repair and maintain this house.
Of course, it is not enough for the mother to be the architect of the house. In a sense, the mother is also the house itself.
Why do you say that? In fact, after watching the whole movie, you will find that the mother did not step out of the house even once, which was understandable in the early stage, but in the later stage, when the house is similar to purgatory on earth, what she did is the same. It is moving in each room, rather than escaping from the open door. From here, we can actually vaguely see the inseparable connection between the mother and the house.
Not only that, but there are also many times in the movie where the mother listens to the sound of the heart in the wall, that is, the heart in the house, and the heart is gradually breaking down. On the one hand, it must mean that the order in the room is gradually destroyed. The aspect may also refer to the mother's gradual desperation.
The heart actually appeared twice in the film, one at the end of the film, when he dug out the dim heart, and the other time, in the first half, there was a heart that blocked the sewer.
The attribution of this heart is actually very objectionable, because in addition to the effect of frightening people, I am sure that this heart must have some reference, but it must not be the heart of the previous mother, and the heart of this mother is also In the ribcage, so I am here to make a little guess.
This heart seems to belong to the man. It is the heart he vomited. The bleeding of the heart can show that he is seriously ill, and the blockage of the heart in the toilet probably means that the entry of outsiders has affected the normal use of the room, that is to say in the early stage. Immigration has already had a negative impact on society. (I will talk about it later in the immigration section)
There is also a strange place in the house that is not cleaned with blood stains. I have two opinions about this place, but I will express one of them here: the blood stains are gradually festering, in fact, there is a wound in the house. , And this almost anthropomorphic performance method made the wound in the house gradually become bigger and festered, in fact, it is just like the mother's inner pain and fear are gradually deepening.
Mother, as the architect of this paradise, and even the existence of paradise itself, as the plot develops, the house is invaded and destroyed, and the mother herself is eventually pushed and beaten. Eventually, the mother explodes and the paradise collapses.
4. "I give you everthing!"
In the third piece of the puzzle, the mother is the earth mother, and the mother is the people of the land.
If you get rid of the baby that was born at the end and take away the religious metaphors of the first half, you can think of the room as the earth and its inhabitants, or let us narrow it down as the United States and its citizens.
And if the house is in the United States, you can probably guess who the people who broke into the house are. Yes, those who admire the male lead are immigrants, and those who only find a place to live (in the movie Those who appear, those who look for toilets, those who look for places to sleep, those who look for food), are more like refugees in a sense.
Immigration in the first half of the movie was relatively peaceful. The first person came just because he admired his work, and then he brought his family and all sorts of things. The killing of brothers during the period reminded me of the American Civil War.
And he, I think, represents the will of the government. It is he who does not care about these invasions. It is he who acquiesces to those people to enter and uses the slogan of "share" to show his heroic side.
The second half of the movie actually shows what the director thinks of the future. With the continuous influx of refugees, the order in the house becomes more and more unsustainable. The police appear to maintain order with riot shields, and naturally, people who resist are also seen. There were also Molotov cocktails thrown. Then came the period of white terror. Terrorist organizations appeared and arrested ordinary citizens for execution, followed by the suppression by the national army. However, at this time, social unrest can no longer be quelled by an army. Now, the country has gone through these things, and finally became dilapidated and dying, the people have no fixed place, and they linger, just like the end of the war.
This is the room that has exhausted energy. However, as a mother, she still loves her people. She has not exhausted everything. Therefore, at this desperate moment, a baby symbolizing hope appears. This is probably The last ray of light that Mother Earth can bring to mankind, but this ray of light is quickly extinguished. The cult regards this washing as the flesh of the Tang monk, and then faces the resistance of Mother Earth. Clothes, ravaged her, scolded her, but she had nothing left.
"I give you everything."
"No, not everthing."
Yes, your life is not given.
5. About love
The last piece of the main puzzle, let us no longer look at the world, but focus on this single family.
Does the hero really love his mother?
I think it may be love, but it is obviously just a superficial emotion.
In fact, the mother is more like a vassal in the family relationship and has no right to speak. In the story of the uninvited guest, we can actually clearly notice that the development of all things is shifted by the will of the male protagonist. When the mother faces the decision-making, it is more of a passive acceptance. Sometimes she will To question why he didn't discuss anything with her, he replied "Do you want to drive them out?" leaving his mother speechless.
At this time, let us focus on "him" for the first time, let us see what kind of person he is.
He is a machismo, arbitrariness, but also a good face.
When he faced outsiders, he didn’t care about his mother’s thoughts, but he also showed a sense of pride. His vanity made him keep the guests when others asked him not to harass him, and he wanted to have a fun with the family of the dead child. At the memorial meeting, he lent his house generously. He portrayed himself as a warm and hospitable image, and he was too enthusiastic about it, as if seeking approval. After all, men are just his fans, and he is very Pay attention to this point.
This vanity, and the desire to be famous, is fully demonstrated in the second half of the film.
After his work was recognized, he even more ignored his mother’s feelings, devoted himself to communicating with fans, and shared the whole house with guests who came from afar, and after they made such damage, he still didn’t want to rush. They left, and even after his fanatics ate the children, he still said to forgive them.
In fact, at this time, his nature is exposed. His pursuit of fame and fortune surpasses everything. He enjoys being embraced by others, even better than his wife and children. The love with his wife is just a part of life. Only condiments, fame and fortune is the real aphrodisiac.
So, does he love his mother? It is love, otherwise he would not cherish the gems left by each generation of mothers so much.
It's just that this kind of love is too shallow, it can be easily distorted by any external force.
6. Endless reincarnation
The main jigsaw has been put together, and we can already use those elements to integrate the frame of the whole film, but when it comes to the frame of the film, we have to mention this kind of reincarnation.
After every house explosion, the male protagonist is a survivor, restarting everything again and again. If we look at the fragments of religion, then the male protagonist is actually a god of creation, but this cannot explain his motives. At this time, if we apply the fragments of the male protagonist’s character, we can guess that he is actually trapped in this reincarnation. Although he has the opportunity to choose a different path every time, he may have countless times. Lost to the temptation of vanity and fame, the end of each reincarnation will happen unexpectedly. Although he does not want to face it, his human weakness has already doomed his end.
7. The frog in the nuclear arsenal
The secret room that mother discovered in the film, we were still confused in the middle of the film, until the end of the film, we discovered that there was a big oil barrel, which is a hidden bomb, we can apply political fragments at this time, understand It is actually a hidden weapon, and such a big killer, in the history of mankind, undoubtedly refers to nuclear weapons. This kind of weapon that should have been hidden was revealed in the world because of bloody conflict. And this kind of weapon will eventually destroy the world and bring everything to zero for mankind.
The interesting thing is that a frog appeared in the nuclear arsenal.
My first thought was the frog that was rushed to the sky when Nasa launched its rocket.
However, this is probably not the case. Then we think about the frog-related stories in religion, and we will find that this may be a metaphor related to the ten plagues, a metaphor for one of the frog plagues.
If we have the heart to continue on the path of the ten plagues, we will find that the blood plagues are definitely there, and even the blood has opened the door of the secret room.
The flies may also exist. The mother once saw a dying fly in the movie. The death of the eldest son corresponds to the death of the Holy Infant. A little more forceful, the rash, perhaps the scar on the man’s ribs, and the night disaster. , Maybe it can explain the broken light bulb in the basement more far-fetched.
8. Holes in the house
In the previous section about the connection between the mother and the house, I have given an explanation for this hole, which is actually a wound on the mother’s body. Here I give another guess, combining the hole in the house with political fragments. In the future, we can also guess that this hole may exist as a kind of scar in society, like a kind of moth. After a certain problem is solved and suppressed by violent means, the root of the problem still exists, just like the roots of the United States. The racial issue is the same. It is possible that the appeasement policy during a certain president’s term will calm the incident. However, the problem has not been resolved. It will gradually ferment in the dark and eventually become a breakthrough for erosion and disintegration of the country.
One story worth mentioning is that someone took a picture before the trauma of this house. I think this can be seen as the seriousness of the racial problem in the United States has caused chaos in the country, but the multi-racial state of the United States is still seen by outsiders. Work is the banner of freedom and tolerance. This is ironic.
9. Other small symbols
There are many other symbolic events or objects. I will make a general summary in this part.
The first is a cult, which is a certain belief that the male protagonist accidentally created. There is nothing to say about it. In reality, such things are not uncommon. Unintentional actions have become the creed of a certain religion, and the male protagonist’s original work is undoubtedly also It has become a biblical existence. I think the movie just wants to show us the absurdity and violence when religion goes astray.
The crystal gems placed in the house can be understood as the forbidden fruit on the tree of good and evil, and if the house is regarded as a country, the crystal is undoubtedly the cornerstone of the establishment of a country, that is, equality and freedom. The indulgence of this cornerstone makes people think that they can freely enter the house and enter the country. Of course, this speculation is a bit far-fetched, but for this equality, the creed of share should exist, and the poem written by the male protagonist (the content I guess is describing the acceptance of the family and afterwards), except that it has something similar to the Bible The same extraordinary status also plays a certain guiding role, which reminds me of the United States’ Declaration of Independence, which also has a lofty status and is something that generally exists as the cornerstone of the United States, and its respect for freedom and equality, Once it is misinterpreted and enlarged infinitely, it will cause social chaos and turmoil.
The potion the mother drank. In the first half of the film, every time the mother felt disharmony, she would drink a yellow potion made from powder. In the second half, she threw it away because she felt happy in her life.
I personally think that the potion is something like a placebo. It is related to political content, just like the government’s propaganda when accepting refugees. It accepts refugees under the slogan of using love to generate electricity. Although the people are reluctant , But will accept the constant influx of refugees under the pretext of vanity.
Someone in the comment area pointed out that this is nitroglycerin, which can treat symptoms such as angina pectoris.
Fire in the basement. In the first half of the film, when my mother went down to the basement to check, the wall suddenly vibrated, and the fire began to burn. Based on the geographical location of the basement, we can regard it as a religious hell, so the fire is undoubtedly hell. In the flame. On the other hand, if the house is regarded as the earth, the fire may mean resources, which means that as more people move in, the consumption of resources in the house starts to accelerate.
The people who broke into the room actually represented more than just refugees. I noticed that one of the characters in the chaos in the second half was an Indian. In fact, he was an aboriginal before the room was built, and there were many in the first half. The black person in the lens is more like a black person who has been integrated into American society earlier. Similarly, Asian girls who want to do shameful things with black people probably refer to Asian groups who have entered American society earlier.
We can notice that in the film, the mother hid the guest’s things twice. One was a lighter used by men to smoke, and the other was a colorful underwear used by women to express their desires. In fact, although the mother kept these two things Du Xuezang, but in the subsequent plots, she was still influenced by them. First of all, she was deceived by the woman's sexual remarks and behaviors, and she had a sexual claim from him (and therefore she became pregnant and had a child), and The man's lighter becomes the last tool to detonate everything. It can be said that the two key items in the first part of the movie are taken care of in the back.
10. Movies beyond plot and metaphor
Because the connotation of this movie is so rich, I spent such a long time trying to deconstruct this movie. In fact, this may be just the tip of the iceberg, but I hope that this will give you a better understanding of this movie.
Except for symbolism and metaphor, the most eye-catching thing in the film is photography. The opening, and even the entire film, are conducted from the perspective of the big cousin. It can be said that basically what she sees is what the viewer sees. While watching the movie immersively, the movie is also full of close-ups of the face of the "mother" in the movie. You may not be able to see what she does every moment, but the subtle changes in her expression make you All have a panoramic view. This kind of photography technique is very bold, because it is very sophisticated for actors to express their inner ability through a single face, and there is no doubt that Jennifer Lawrence has done a very good job, and most of the drama is only promoted by facial expressions, which is very basic.
The above-the-shoulder photography has other functions at the same time. One of them must have been noticed by people who have seen it, that is, we will ignore her dress, so when she appears disheveled in the memorial meeting of men and women, only others will point out. , We realized what was wrong.
Another great use is that the above-the-shoulder photography makes the entire lens almost filled with the character's face. The oppressive composition makes it difficult to have a chance to breathe, and it also makes the tone of the whole film become More depressing.
In short, the director took a few days to write this script. He was very ambitious. However, it is true that the result of the script is not over-polished. The final result is a messy plot. I think this is very similar to the previous years of "The Man without a Surname" ", the same concept that is too big but not fully developed, you will be shocked after seeing it, but because the depth is not enough, it can't bring real shock to people.
This is a good-looking film, but it is not excellent after all. After all, the incompleteness of a puzzle that cannot be completed cannot be made up by unlimited metaphors or an exclamation mark at the end of the title.
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