My audience hated it but I absolutely adored it... maybe I’m missing something with the biblical references. Spoiler: ish I read it as an allegory for relationships with people with borderline personality disorder... but maybe I’m reading too much into it. The ripping out of her heart, the way she begged him and he refused her wishes, the calm and the storm... Either way, I thought it was utterly original, completely compelling and bonkers and I loved the whole thing.
I genuinely can’t see any other way to read into this film other than... Spoiler it was basically the bible? The old man was Adam, Michelle Pfeiffer was Eve, who turned up the day after he had a big wound in his side hinting at a rib removal. Their sons were Cain and Abel. The funeral guests were mankind being wiped out by the great flood (the broken sink), the baby was Jesus, worshippers eating his body etc etc. It’s so heavy handed and obvious.
Though the more I think about it, the more different ideas I have for what it’s about. I really really loved it!
The first 3/4 of the film had me thinking it was going to be an OH SO RARE Sheena 10/10. I didn't read the biblical stuff into it at that point, though I figured religion had a role to play, but the final quarter is just LUDICROUS and, yes, quite heavy handed, and it became obvious what the theme was during that and, with hindsight, you can see what each individual piece meant, absolutely. Interestingly, Mr Sheena took something totally different from it than me- and gave a quite good argument for it all being about post-natal depression. Overall 8/10- Lawrence I thought was very two dimensional, which was a shame, as normally I love her, but Pfeiffer stole the show- she was criminally underused, though she obviously had the campest role, she played the whole thing perfectly- the menace behind her eyes was palpable and, if the film wasn't JUST A BIT FUCKING MENTAL, I think she could have secured a supporting nomination somewhere along the line. As is, sadly, the ending means she is kind of forgotten by the finish. Pity...
At one point, I thought it was about the fear of pre-natal AND post-natal depression. The fears of having a baby and then the separate fears once you have them. I still think the relationship works well as a relationship between someone with borderline and someone that doesn't. Maybe the way it crosses over into so many other 'feelings' is why the Bible resonates with people so much 2000 years later.
Well it isn't! Stop trying to make this crap something it's NOT! God, now I know how people who hate David Lynch feel like
It's far from "crap". Even if you couldn't follow the plot, the acting, directing and cinematography alone are worthwhile. I guess some of us just don't get ART
“What the hell is the difference between a painting by a person who chooses to paint like a child and a child’s painting?”
Now that I’ve recovered slightly from the shock of what a SHITFEST this was, I’m now mad that Michelle was wasted. She was the only who put any real effort into the whole thing.
I loved this. The more mental, the better in my opinion. I think it's great to have something so unusual in mainstream cinemas. I agree that it was heavy-handed and not as smart an allegory as it thinks it is but I'm all for more risk taking in big movies.
What a load of ridiculous old toot. I loved it. Spoiler: Spoiler Weirdly, I thought the subtext was ludicrously heavy-handed too, but my interpretation of it was different. I thought it was obviously a story about how artists - especially writers - cannibalise their own lives. I thought that was especially obvious when the crowd is literally devouring her house and she's screaming "You're ruining it! You're ruining it!" - he was giving everything to the public with his writing, first making her insecure about her place in his life and then ultimately tainting and destroying everything, because he couldn't keep anything back that was just for her, however much she begged him to. I can see the biblical overtones now that you mention them, but they didn't especially jump out at me at the time aside from the obvious Rosemary's Baby parallels. (I'm glad it didn't quite go in that direction BTW, because there were parts in the first half when I genuinely thought it might basically turn out to be a remake). Acting wise, Michelle Pfieffer was fun but it clearly ain't her Oscar role. Javier Bardem I found fairly ludicrous and they had ZERO chemistry as a couple. I know the age gap was a plot point, but he genuinely did look more like her father. I thought J.Law was borderline terrible to be honest. Some of her reaction faces had me howling. However, it weirdly fit the tone of the movie, especially in the second half which was just a complete riot of campy nonsense. I've been meaning to see this for weeks and ended up just going on my own to a cinema a few miles out of town as it's the only place still playing it round here. The screen was 100% empty apart from me which was PERFECT. I did however then get a taxi home, and my taxi driver happened to be a bit low-key weird and overfamiliar. He asked if it was OK if he stopped at McDonalds for a drink, then proceeded to spill it all down himself, drive really recklessly and asked me if there were any decent clubs likely to still be open in Leeds when we arrived. None of it *that* out there for a taxi driver, but his behaviour was close enough to the home invaders that I did start to have a quiet minor freak out that I might still be in the film.
What the fuck?! Just back from this and I thought it was loads of batshit fun. Not quite the TENS TENS TENS ACROSS THE BOARD masterpiece some critics have made it out to be and I can see why it is so divisive. Still, I had a right old time watching it. It didn't quite coalesce into anything particularly profound at the end of the day and it certainly didn't have the brilliant ending that Black Swan had. It's just a shame it ultimately didn't have a little bit more to conclude than it did. However, it looked amazing, the sound design was brilliant and the acting was great. Queen Michelle clearly ain't going to be picking up any awards for this, more's the pity, but I loved her malevolent drunk the most. Those looks she was throwing... Lawrence was really good I thought, the howling in the final act was pretty harrowing and she did a nice line in increasingly bewildered terror before that. Bardem switched things up nicely so I was never sure which way he was going to fall. I hadn't read anything about it before going in, but knew from the reaction it had to veer away from the Rosemary's Baby/Black Swan "Is the world mad or is it me?" territory it started off in, but I wasn't prepared for where it did end up. Reading it as post-natal depression seemed a bit obvious so I settled on VoR's theory of it being about how creating art is all consuming and irredeemably selfish, at the expense of everything around the artist. I loved the Book of Genesis and Ten Plagues references which upped the ante on the overwhelming egotism of creating art. Aronofsky is quite fixated on Christianity in his other films, so these really stood out for me. Beautifully put together but behind Black Swan, Requiem and Pi for me in the Aronofsky stakes.
Oh thank god cause I felt like a mong reading this thread having absolutely caught zero biblical references. I think it's both but for me once I cottoned that it's an artist's tantrum I just started cackling at how over the top it got in the end.
Saw this last night, sorry but it's a hoot! Not nesecarrily a great film, but a great experience in the cinema, from the fairly standard, and incredibly decent first half, until the way it goes from comically ridiculous to batshit crazy. I'm sure there's a more subtle story in there other than the straight biblical retelling, about artistic expression, personal relationships or the envrioment, but I'll be damned if I know it. More Pfeiffer is the only thing that could have made this better. You spend the first 90 minutes thinknig wtf, until the end when it all becomes WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. Not a 10 by ANY STRETCH, but I feel compelled to give it a 9. It's really one you've just got to enjoy FOR THE RIDE. Shame no ones going to see it, as I think it's not a film that is going to translate well out of the cinema.
I saw this on my own in an empty cinema save for an old couple near the front so quite enjoyed CHORTLING along to myself as things got increasingly more ridiculous. I'm crap when it comes to noticing symbolism stuff, perhaps because I'm usually looking for an ACTUAL PLOT and end up furious when you find there isn't one and it's all just one big METAPHOR for something But in this case it was such a gratuitous visual extravaganza of silly old bollocks that you have to love it. But what a WASTE of Pfeiffer. She was so so good in the first half and then nothing. If I was Aronofsky I'd have been tempted to scrap the whole second half and make it entirely Pfeiffer-character dominated. It's not like the plot matters here anyway Is this getting Oscar buzz? It seems too absurd to deserve that and the leads just did a job rather anything spectacular. Only Pfeiffer's performance stands out but it was just too brief...
Nah, I don't think it's being talked about in the Oscar race any more. It was too divisive and financially unsuccessful.
I loved this! Incredible atmosphere right from the off, and the final half hour is beyond epic. Absolutely stunning.
