The weight mother! bears
Darren Aronofsky's title character is the divine feminine, Mary, and Spirit; she's a little bit Gaia and a whole lot of the Feminine Principle.
Darren Aronofsky’s movies have explored the tortured creative life (Black Swan), surrealist psychological drama (Requiem for a Dream), and biblical allegory (Noah). He wraps all those elements into his latest film mother!
If you are a sucker for allegories like I am, you will be pulled into the pleasure of puzzling out biblical parallels. As you ask, “Wait, is that supposed to be . . . ?” (the answer is yes) and “I wonder how far he will take this?” (the answer is all the way), you will be grateful for your years of Bible study. It is hard not to like a movie that makes theological nerds feel cool. But the allegory has a deeply troubling view of creativity at its heart.
The story starts out with a bang: an explosion hollows out a beautiful, rambling Victorian home. At the center of the home is a woman’s face, ringed in flames. In the debris after the fire, a man’s hands fit a beautiful crystal into a decorative case and we are in Ezekiel 37 territory: a rush of wind, a rattling noise, and ash and bone are restored to life. A woman gets out of bed and starts her day.
