New Jennifer Lawrence movie receives bad reviews

Jennifer Lawrence is a talented actor. Her 2013 Academy Award for Best Actress speaks alone of her acting abilities. From older movies such as  Silver Linings to newer movies such as The Hunger Games trilogy and Passengers–people all around can agree that she plays believable characters. Despite her skills, however, many people are criticising the new movie she stars in called Mother!.

The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence as she plays the character, Mother. Opposite of Lawrence is Javier Bardem, who plays the character, Him. For most critics, the problem stems from the biblical allegories the film is supposedly loaded with.

According to critics, Mother! is an allegory for the Book of Genesis, with Bardem’s character, Him, representing a narcissistic form of God while Lawrence’s character, Mother, represents Mother Earth. Later characters also seem to be linked back to parts of the Bible, such as Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel.  However, for senior Abigail Hurtt, the movie did not seem to have any hidden allegories, but instead left her feeling increasingly confused.

“I feel like it’s a stretch,” Hurtt said. “I’ve read a lot of reviews that were saying it’s an allegory, but they never explained what it’s an allegory to. I didn’t like it, personally. I think the criticisms are coming (because) it’s too far. Everything is too far. Everything is too extreme to the point where it’s just chaotic. I think the directors just kind of did it for shock factor. I was really disappointed.”

Some movie goers claim the story can become quite jumbled and confusing until the person reads what director, Darren Aronofsky, meant to get across to his audience. This muddiness was extended to Hurtt, who said she did not truly understand the movie until she read about it more online–even then, she said she still was disoriented.

“My overall experience was confusion,” Hurtt said. “You know how in a movie, they’ll drop hints, things that don’t really make sense, but then later they explain it. This movie, like every couple of minutes, they’ll drop something new that’s never explained. Nothing tied together, so I had no idea what (was) going on. It’s just weird.”