A Breakdown Of What The Movie "Mother!" Means To Me

"Women will not be ever as important as the music and a woman thinks she can she's kidding herself because if a guy really loves the music, that's where he's going to be."




That quote from the song Andrew Hill Break from Madlib's Shades of Blue is the first thing that came to mind as I stared at the blank screen on my computer to write this article. All art is destructive to someone. Being an artist means using the people around you as experiments, as vials to fill your creativity in order to keep pushing yourself further into your work. Nothing else matters but the work. The art. Your family, your  relationships, your health all play second fiddle to achieving complete satisfaction with a project, to quench that demon inside that constantly compels you to draw or write or make music even when you feel you can't go on anymore. It's a personal battle and the people close to you become casualties of war, collateral damage that falls at the waist side. All used up and burned out until another muse, another inspiration walks along and fills your creativity up again. Then when you finally achieve total inspiration is the people who stuck around for the beating enough? Or is the poison of fame so intoxicating only the pursuit of art into the flames of glory the only thing that matters? This is what the movie Mother! means to me.

The House & The Glass Egg

Javier's wife played by Jennifer Lawrence is the perfect woman. Young, beautiful, at his service when he needs her and concerned about his process. She spends all day fixing up the house that previously burned down all in his name. As she works on this project we can see what looks like a heart beating inside the walls when Jennifer touches it. Like the house is almost alive. And it is. Sort of. These patched walls are a representation of their relationship and past relationships before her. And like all the other women before her, she spends all day taking care of the house which is symbolic of taking care of Javier the writer or tending to their significant other. Exerting their energy to fuel his creativity endeavors. But as time goes on in this present moment we see the heart getting dark and cold, almost as if it is dying like Javier & Jennifer's relationship is. This heart is the glass egg he treasures so much because it represents inspiration. And their relationship is dying because there is no inspiration. Darren basically shows us this when Jennifer dies as Javier pulls the glass egg from her chest when he gets what he wants. (writing his new piece).

We are told that the house previously burned down and the glass egg was the only thing left in the ruins meaning we can only surmise that the egg at the beginning of the movie came from a previous relationship that was also, like Jennifer, burned down to the ground when he fulfilled his creative process and used her. We even see as the last scene in the movie another woman who looks like Jennifer wake up telling the audience Javier is continuing this process all over again and this is how he uses the opposite sex: As inspiration, nothing more.

So to sum up the core of it all the house represents them and all past relationships before them, Jennifer tries to tend to the relationship and build it back up from a previous woman, it doesn't work, house burns down (their relationship burns, up in smoke) when Javier gets what he wants (creativity, writing his poem) and takes the glass egg which is his inspiration and places it on a mantle to start the process all over again. Taking another woman, using her until he gets what he wants and disposing of her.  

The House =  Their Relationship

Glass Egg   = His Inspiration

 Him

Javier is the main character of the movie. Sure we spend more time with Jennifer but Javier is who this story is about.  An artist struggling to create his next masterpiece. Already a mildly famous poet he shuffles back and forth around his lonely, quiet house waiting for inspiration to strike. He is so afraid to pick up a pen and even write a single word. This dilemma and the fallout is what the movie is about. A writer's block that can't be cured. A lack of creativity that can't be satisfied. A great artist, bored and losing touch with a sensation that made him great. Jennifer, what was once a great spark of inspiration, now reduced to someone he can't even touch anymore which we're giving hints to when Michelle's character jokes about their sex life. That's why he was so excited when Ed Harris came into the picture. Something that could ignite his passion again. And we watch this battle to keep igniting that spark, sometimes literal (fight scenes), play out in his mind through the course of the movie.

Then when he gets the inspiration and the tremendous fame along with it, the fires are burning and he wants more. More love from his fans, more love for his work. He doesn't care about his new baby. He wants to show him off  to them, the ones who appreciate him, who worship him like a God. Isn't that what all artists want? Whatever connection that was left with Jennifer doesn't matter. Only the glory.

Her

This is his story. And she is our lens into it. We see these events play out through her eyes, her experiences. If Javier is the main character of this battle, then Jennifer is the victim. A victim of his creative process. To be used up, burned down then disposed of when she became pregnant with his son and gave him what he desperately needed in order to write again. She becomes the "mother" of his inspiration. When the house burns, she burns along with her purpose. When he takes her heart, his inspiration, she vanishes along with her purpose. But in order to get there we see her traverse through stages of insanity.

In His Mind

Remember this movie exists in his world. Living with a writer means living in his imagination and the stories he creates. So the over the top drama involving Ed Harris's son and their will or the scores of people coming to greet Javier to proclaim their love for his work or the battles and riots that play out like a Michael Bay film, explosions and all, feel like stories within stories. Jennifer trying to escape Javier's playground of fantasies when notoriety over this certain piece becomes so much and he gets lost in his creativity. His glory. The passion is full throttle fury taking over all. Even the baby eating scene describes an over the top moment of Javier cannibalizing his love ones for fame. The drama, the thrills, all from a writer's mind out of control.

Revelations

"What hurts me the most is that I wasn't enough."

"It's not your fault. Nothing is ever enough. I couldn't create if it was. And I have to. That's what I do. That's what I am. Now I must try it all again.

"No. Just let me go."

The final words said in the movie explain it all. A woman used up and hurt and an intense artist always yearning for more. It feels like for Darren Aronofsky this movie was a way to say sorry to someone. To explain to that one person that he understands the pain she felt and how he couldn't do anything about it. The pursuit of passion was too strong and in the process someone got burned. It's almost sad in a way. How artists push the people they love the most aside, retreat into themselves and when they need something show themselves only to not be there when others need them the most.

If this is the exact opposite of what you saw, maybe a pretentious bore or an allegory for mother earth as Darren Aronofsky describes it, there is nothing wrong with that. That's the great thing about art. It can be whatever you want it to be.