---
title: "mother!"
year: 2017
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/mother-2017"
fi1m_id: "mother-2017"
imdb_id: "tt5109784"
tmdb_id: 381283
wikidata_id: "Q25339558"
fi1m_score: 64
critics_score: 70
critics_reviews: 35
published: "2026-09-27T08:33:55.986605+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-27T08:33:56.556679+00:00"
region: "CL"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# mother! (2017)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky · 2h 01m · CCC 14 · Horror, Drama

## Identity

mother!

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/mother-2017
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** mother-2017
- **IMDb ID:** tt5109784
- **TMDB ID:** 381283
- **Wikidata ID:** Q25339558
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5109784/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/381283, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25339558

**Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 70 from 35 reviews

*In a sentence:* Two hours of Jennifer Lawrence asking people to leave her house and not one of them doing it

> Darren Aronofsky’s horror about a house that fills with uninvited guests is tightly controlled for an hour, and Michelle Pfeiffer is the worst of them. Then the allegory takes over, the volume goes up, and the second half is mostly spent explaining the first.

## Synopsis

A young woman, credited only as Mother (Jennifer Lawrence), lives with her much older husband, a poet credited as Him (Javier Bardem), in a large old wooden house standing alone in a meadow. The house burned once; she has rebuilt it herself and is still plastering the walls while he sits at his desk unable to write. One night a stranger (Ed Harris) knocks, saying he took the place for a bed and breakfast. The husband invites him to stay. The next morning the stranger’s wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) arrives, uninvited, and settles in, asking questions about children and the marriage that she has no business asking. Then the couple’s two sons (Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson) turn up, fighting over their father’s will, and the house begins to fill.

## Review

Darren Aronofsky has made a horror film about a woman who cannot get anyone to leave her house. Jennifer Lawrence, credited only as Mother, has spent months rebuilding a burned-out house in the middle of a meadow for her husband, a poet credited as Him (Javier Bardem), who has not written a line since they moved in. A stranger knocks. The husband lets him stay. For an hour this is as tight a piece of dread as Aronofsky has made, and then the film decides it would rather be a parable and stops trusting us.

Philip Messina’s house is the best thing in it. It stands alone in long grass with no road leading to it, and inside it is never finished: wet plaster on the landing, a hole where a wall should be, a lavatory that backs up with something that is not water. Matthew Libatique shoots nearly the whole film from a foot behind or in front of Lawrence’s head, handheld and grainy, following her up the stairs and round the corners, so that we never see a room before she does. Jóhann Jóhannsson is credited with the music and there is almost none of it. The film runs on floorboards, the doorbell and something ticking behind the walls, and the quiet does more work than a score would have.

The guests make the first hour. Ed Harris arrives coughing, says he took the place for a bed and breakfast, and is smoking in the study by the end of the evening. Michelle Pfeiffer follows the next morning in dark glasses, finds the drinks, and asks Lawrence why she has not had children and whether the marriage is any good in bed. Pfeiffer plays her with a smile that never moves and a voice pitched just under rudeness, and every scene she is in improves. Danny Glicker puts her in clinging black and Lawrence in thin pale cotton. We laughed at Pfeiffer, and then stopped laughing, at about the point their sons (Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson) turned up shouting about a will.

We were frightened for a good hour, and we do not say that often. Nothing supernatural has happened; a woman is standing in her own kitchen while people she did not invite open her drawers and her husband tells her to be nicer. The third time the doorbell rang we felt the whole row stiffen. Lawrence does this with almost nothing: a set jaw, a hand flat on the wall, the same request to leave repeated more politely each time. It is a performance made of restraint, and the second half asks her to scream instead. She does that well too, but it is a smaller thing to watch.

The second half takes a turn we will not describe, except to say that the house fills up. Aronofsky, who also wrote it, has a meaning in mind, and from about the seventieth minute he is illustrating that meaning, scene by scene, instead of telling the story. Andrew Weisblum’s cutting, patient for an hour, goes to fragments. Things happen because the parable requires them to, not because anyone in that house would do them. Bardem, warm and vague and faintly pleased with himself throughout, dwindles into a mouthpiece. The scenes are staged with skill. They are also a checklist, and by the last half hour we had stopped being frightened and were ticking off the references, which is not what fear feels like.

This is Aronofsky’s pattern. [*Black Swan*](https://film.one/film/black-swan) (2010) kept its metaphor inside a dancer’s body and was terrifying because of it. *Noah* (2014) started with an idea and built a flood around it. This film begins as the first kind and ends as the second, and you can see the join.

It runs 121 minutes and carries an 18, which the last act earns. See it for Pfeiffer, for the house, and for the hour in which nothing has happened and everything is wrong. Bring someone who does not mind being told what a film means, because this one will tell you, and then tell you again in case you missed it.

*Fi1m score 64, published 27 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics come out in favour, and their praise gathers around Jennifer Lawrence. Review after review calls her performance the thing that holds the film together, and several note that the camera scarcely leaves her face, which they count as Aronofsky’s best decision. The close handheld photography and the oppressive sound design are named repeatedly as the source of the dread. Michelle Pfeiffer’s cruel house guest gets a steady supply of admiring mentions, and most agree the controlled first half is the film at its best.

The reservations are about what comes after. A good number of the positive reviews concede that the second half tips into excess and that the allegory is too plainly signposted to reward decoding. The spread of opinion is wide. Variety finds the spectacle dazzling but empty, and Vulture objects that the film puts Lawrence through suffering that serves the director rather than the story. /Film goes further and thinks her miscast.

## Straight answers

**How long is mother!, and what is it rated?**

*mother!* runs 2h 01m and is rated 14 by the CCC in Chile. It is a horror and drama film.

**Where can I watch mother! in Chile?**

*mother!* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from CLF 1.49. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**What should I watch after mother!?**

After *mother!*, try [*Rosemary's Baby*](https://film.one/film/rosemarys-baby) (1968, Fi1m 92): The template: a wife, a flat, and neighbours who will not stop helping. Then [*The Exterminating Angel*](https://film.one/film/the-exterminating-angel) (1962, Fi1m 87): Buñuel’s dinner guests find they cannot leave; funnier, shorter and no less strange; and [*Repulsion*](https://film.one/film/repulsion) (1965, Fi1m 88): Polanski shuts Catherine Deneuve in a London flat and lets the walls do the rest.

### Reviews we read (35)

- **Evening Standard**, David Sexton (5/5): Sexton finds the film scary and arty, with its oppressive style casting a spell. He especially praises Jennifer Lawrence’s emotional honesty and expressive face. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/venice-film-festival-2017-mother-review-jennifer-lawrences-honesty-casts-a-spell-on-this-scary-arty-story-a3682741.html)
- **The i Paper**, Matthew Turner (★★★★★): Turner calls the film an unmissable, nightmarish experience that is both shocking and intense. He especially praises the technical direction and Jennifer Lawrence’s captivating performance. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/darren-aronofsky-mother-most-shocking-film-2017-review-90851)
- **Time Out**, Joshua Rothkopf (5/5): The critic calls the film bold, barmy and brilliant, an instant landmark of boundary-pushing cinema. The review singles out its in-your-face psychological horror as far more than a haunted-house movie. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/mother-2)
- **IndieWire**, Ben Croll (A-): Croll finds the film daring and effective, building from a slow burn into an audacious cinematic blaze. He especially praises the close, handheld camerawork that keeps viewers with Jennifer Lawrence as the house and its horrors spiral out of control. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/mother-review-darren-aronofsky-jennifer-lawrence-javier-bardem-1201872856/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (90/100, inferred): Chang finds the film feverishly inspired, experimentally ambitious, and beautifully coherent despite its escalating chaos. He especially praises Jennifer Lawrence’s extraordinary, expressive performance and the film’s commitment to her perspective. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mother-review-20170914-story.html)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (85/100, inferred): Bradshaw finds the film an outrageous, exhilarating horror-comedy, though its chaos is deliberately excessive. He praises Jennifer Lawrence’s compelling central performance and Michelle Pfeiffer’s cruel supporting turn. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/sep/05/mother-review-jennifer-lawrence-horror-darren-aronofsky-javier-bardem)
- **The AV Club**, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (B+): Vishnevetsky finds the film a brilliantly deranged, skillfully made work that delivers horror despite its elaborate allegory. He especially praises Aronofsky’s claustrophobic focus on Jennifer Lawrence’s disoriented perspective. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/god-is-a-gaslighting-husband-in-darren-aronofsky-s-bril-1803126149)
- **Total Film**, James Mottram (4/5): Mottram finds the film audacious and wildly watchable, though its second half never matches the brilliance of its first. He praises the unsettling control of the early scenes and Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance as a provocative house guest. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/mother-review/)
- **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (75/100, inferred): Brody finds the film initially dull but ultimately thrilling, horrifying, and audacious. He praises Aronofsky’s cataclysmic imagination and the film’s forceful satire of fame, artistic vanity, and destructive fandom. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/mother-darren-aronofskys-thrilling-horrifying-nearly-unbelievable-satire-of-fame)
- **Empire**, Dan Jolin (70/100, inferred): Jolin finds the film difficult and disorienting but vivid, ambitious, and far from forgettable. He praises Jennifer Lawrence’s intense central performance and the film’s striking dreamlike imagery, while noting that its excesses and brutal climax may alienate viewers. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/mother-5-review/)
- **Screen Daily**, Fionnuala Halligan (70/100, inferred): Halligan presents the film as an expressionistic ode to contemporary life, suggesting a positive verdict. The standfirst singles out its expressionistic approach, though the review’s further praise or criticisms are not visible. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/mother-venice-review/5121922.article)
- **Radio Times**, Radio Times staff (65/100, inferred): The review describes the film as entertaining but muddled. It notes echoes of *Rosemary’s Baby* and *Get Out* but the available text gives no further detail about what it praises or criticizes. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/mother-review-a-modest-home-invasion-chiller/)
- **Sight and Sound**, Nick Pinkerton (65/100, inferred): Pinkerton finds the film crass and overblown but ultimately impressed by its forceful filmmaking. He singles out the escalating claustrophobia and masterfully orchestrated final chaos. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/mother-review-darren-aronofskys-symphony-domestic-disquiet)
- **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The review text is inaccessible, so its verdict cannot be determined. No praise or complaint from the critic is visible. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mother-2017)
- **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page content is unavailable, so the critic’s verdict cannot be established. No specific praise or complaint can be verified from the accessible text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/movies/mother-review-jennifer-lawrence-darren-aronofsky.html)
- **Little White Lies**, David Jenkins (4/3/3): Jenkins describes the film as an ordeal and leaves its enjoyability unresolved. He singles out its bewildering, visceral conceptual imagery, likening it to a Rorschach blot made of menstrual blood. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/mother-darren-aronofsky-jennifer-lawrence)
- **Slant Magazine**, Christopher Gray (2/4): Gray finds the film ambitious but overburdened by references, with its escalating drama often feeling inert. He singles out its oppressive sound design as an effective source of atmosphere. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/mother-2017/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Todd McCarthy (50/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film gripping but ultimately excessive, with plot contrivances that weaken its dramatic impact. He praises Jennifer Lawrence’s performance and the unsettling cinematography and production design. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/mother-review-1033545/)
- **Film Comment**, Michael Sragow (30/100, inferred): Sragow’s verdict is negative, saying Aronofsky’s mystical thriller flounders. He singles out the film’s unsuccessful attempt to work as a mystical thriller. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-mother/)
- **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman (30/100, inferred): Gleiberman finds the film dazzling and entertaining as horror spectacle, but ultimately empty and lacking meaningful resonance. He particularly criticizes its thin characterization and escalating torments, which he says offer little beyond shock and showmanship. [Read](https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/mother-review-jennifer-lawrence-venice-film-festival-1202545924/)
- **Vulture**, David Edelstein (20/100, inferred): Edelstein finds the film grandiose and self-aggrandizing, despite calling it a tour de force on its own terms. He complains that it puts Jennifer Lawrence through needless suffering, reducing her to a director’s object of torment. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2017/09/mother-is-a-second-rate-self-aggrandizing-tour-de-force.html)
- **The Wrap** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a glorious piece of cinematic insanity, praising its ambition and audacity. They single out Jennifer Lawrence’s committed performance at the center of Aronofsky’s singular vision. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/mother-toronto-review-jennifer-lawrence-darren-aronofsky-glorious-insanity/)
- **Den of Geek**, Kayti Burt (4/5): Burt finds the film an effectively disturbing, challenging experience despite flaws in its exploration of womanhood and race. She praises Lawrence’s grounding performance and Aronofsky’s modern reworking of biblical material. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/mother-review/)
- **Digital Spy**, Jamie Graham (80/100, inferred): The critic calls it an unusually wild and effective horror film, though its symbolism and treatment of its protagonist may put some viewers off. He praises the claustrophobic technical craft, especially the close camera work and unnerving sound design. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a837174/mother-review-jennifer-lawrence-darren-aronofsky/)
- **The Skinny**, Joseph Walsh (★★★★): Walsh calls the film a shocking delight whose strangeness rewards repeated interpretation. He praises its layered mystery, horror, and sharp critiques of art and celebrity culture. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/mother-jennifer-lawrence-darren-aronofsky)
- **Consequence**, Dominick Suzanne-Mayer (78/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a potent, harrowing provocation, though its blunt metaphors and excesses can verge on indulgence. Jennifer Lawrence’s performance is singled out as a towering achievement and the story’s essential human anchor. [Read](https://consequence.net/2017/09/film-review-mother/)
- **Collider**, Brian Formo (B): Formo finds the film audacious and thrilling, though its metaphors are obvious and its chaotic second half goes too far. He singles out Aronofsky’s camerawork and sound design as revelatory. [Read](https://collider.com/mother-review-jennifer-lawrence/)
- **NME** (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film wildly ambitious and potentially divisive, but ultimately worth celebrating. They single out Aronofsky’s precise control of its escalating chaos, even when its meaning remains unclear. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/mother-film-review-2135113)
- **Polygon**, Ben Kuchera (75/100, inferred): Kuchera finds the film to be Aronofsky’s best work, while acknowledging its meaning remains uncertain. He praises its lush visuals and Jennifer Lawrence’s deeply committed performance. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/20/16339354/mother-is-a-mirror-not-a-lesson/)
- **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film audacious and unsettling, despite its increasingly wild ending. He singles out Jennifer Lawrence’s performance and Aronofsky’s trust in her for creating a genuine sense of unease. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/mother-2017-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray)
- **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (65/100, inferred): Hammond finds the film intensely polarizing but compelling, saying it lingers in the mind. He praises Jennifer Lawrence as its emotional center and the camera’s unwavering focus on her. [Read](https://deadline.com/2017/09/mother-review-jennifer-lawrence-darren-aronofsky-javier-bardem-1202170798/)
- **The Playlist** (64/100, inferred): The accessible page contains only an anti-crawler notice, so the critic's verdict is unavailable. No praise or complaint can be verified from the supplied text. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/mother-venice-review-20170905/)
- **The Ringer**, K. Austin Collins (60/100, inferred): Collins finds the film messy and frustrating, but ultimately enjoys its ambitious, chaotic mix of themes. He especially praises Jennifer Lawrence’s strange, exhausting performance and Michelle Pfeiffer’s gleeful meanness. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2017/09/14/movies/mother-film-review-darren-aronofsky-jennifer-lawrence)
- **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (7 out of 10): The critic finds the film committed to its wild, unsettling vision, though its allegory feels heavy-handed and Jennifer Lawrence is miscast. The anarchic final stretch is singled out for its shocking, fast-escalating imagery. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/553235/mother-review/)
- **Paste**, Will Leitch (5.1): Leitch finds the film overwhelming but ultimately frustrating, with its chaos failing to deliver a satisfying payoff. He praises its images of creeping dread, while criticizing its blunt, overlong approach and Lawrence’s passive role. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/darren-aronofsky/mother)

## Details

- **Director:** Darren Aronofsky
- **Director:** Darren Aronofsky
- **Writer:** Darren Aronofsky
- **Cinematography:** Matthew Libatique
- **Editor:** Andrew Weisblum
- **Music:** Jóhann Jóhannsson
- **Production design:** Philip Messina
- **Costume design:** Danny Glicker
- **Producer:** Ari Handel, Scott Franklin
- **Cast:** Jennifer Lawrence as Mother; Javier Bardem as Him; Ed Harris as Man; Michelle Pfeiffer as Woman; Brian Gleeson as Younger Brother; Domhnall Gleeson as Oldest Son; Jovan Adepo as Cupbearer; Amanda Chiu as Damsel
- **Runtime:** 2h 01m
- **Certificate (CCC):** 14
- **Release (Chile):** 21 September 2017
- **Genres:** Horror, Drama
- **Budget:** $30 million
- **Box office:** $45 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I26TtPhtqqY

## Where to watch in Chile

- Amazon Prime Video: rent CLF 1.49, sd
- Apple TV: rent CLF 2490.00, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy CLF 6.99, uhd
- Apple TV: buy CLF 7990.00, hd

*Checked 2026-09-27.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Rosemary's Baby* (1968), Fi1m 92: The template: a wife, a flat, and neighbours who will not stop helping. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rosemarys-baby.md)
- *The Exterminating Angel* (1962), Fi1m 87: Buñuel’s dinner guests find they cannot leave; funnier, shorter and no less strange. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-exterminating-angel.md)
- *Repulsion* (1965), Fi1m 88: Polanski shuts Catherine Deneuve in a London flat and lets the walls do the rest. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/repulsion.md)
- *Funny Games* (1997), Fi1m 74: Haneke’s polite young men at the door and a family too well mannered to refuse them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/funny-games.md)
- *Black Swan* (2010), Fi1m 82: Aronofsky’s other horror of a woman consumed, and the one where the metaphor stays put. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/black-swan.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/mother-2017