Jennifer Lawrence found her start in the world of teen dystopias and comic book adaptations. Most of us were introduced to her as Katniss Everdeen, the bow and arrow-wielding heroine of The Hunger Games, or as Mystique, the scaly, red-haired X-Men superhero. But as Lawrence has matured, she seems to have grown out of those blockbusting lead roles and into new realms.
Since The Hunger Games came to an end just under a decade ago, Lawrence has expanded her catalogue and proven herself to be a particularly versatile actor. She has worked with the likes of David O Russell and Adam McKay on Oscar contenders, swapping big-budget blockbusters for award-season hopefuls. But perhaps the most daring film she has added to her catalogue is 2017’s Mother!
For this project, Lawrence teamed up with director Darren Aronofsky. The filmmaker had previously helmed the ballet-focused thriller Black Swan and tackled addiction in Requiem for a Dream, garnering a reputation for his intense style. Audiences tend to love or hate his films, so Lawrence knew she was taking a risk when she accepted the leading role in his next project.
Together with a star-studded cast that included Javier Bardem, Domhnall Gleeson, and Michelle Pfeiffer, Lawrence and Aronofsky worked together to turn Biblical metaphors into a stomach-turning horror film. Lawrence stars as Mother, a woman whose house becomes flooded with visitors and violence that she desperately tries, and ultimately fails, to curb.
Reactions to Mother!, perhaps expectedly, were mixed. Some viewers were turned off by the excessive violence — the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival even incited boos from viewers, according to reports, and the director has even received hate mail for the film. Other critics and cinema-goers were more complimentary towards the movie, praising Lawrence’s performance and the frantic energy of the feature.
Fortunately, Lawrence wasn’t looking for widespread praise when she took on the project. In fact, it marked one of very few times when she felt unconcerned with audience reactions. “It’s certainly not a darling,” she told Deadline of the film, “Every time you make a movie you hope everyone likes it. It’s your only thought. That never crossed our minds.”
Rather than aiming to make something enjoyable or entertaining, Lawrence saw the film as an “assault” but a “necessary” one. “I’m proud of us,” she added, “I’m proud of Darren, and I’m proud of banding together to deliver something we believe in.” She even shrugged off the CinemaScore rating the film received – a disappointing F grade.
The film may have garnered mixed reactions from audiences, but this seems to be the point of many of Aronofsky’s offerings. His filmmaking style doesn’t exactly allow for a comfortable cinema-going experience. It pushes viewers to their limits, seeing how much anxiety and violence they can watch while squirming in their seats and how willing they are to delve into the themes and commentary sitting just beneath.
Casting Lawrence in this role was a particularly ingenious choice because of how we knew her already. Her face was already so familiar to so many of us through her performances as Katniss and Mystique, but even her comforting presence on-screen wasn’t enough to offset the distress and discomfort caused by watching Mother!
Despite the poor ratings, both Lawrence and Aronofsky executed the vision they had for the film, while the star also showed off a new side to her acting abilities.
