The new poster for Darren Aronofsky's mother! isn't for the faint of heart. The director has covered some pretty grim psychological territory over the course of his movie career. In his debut feature Pi, he explored via wildly expressionistic visuals the inner-life of a tormented numbers theorist obsessed with discovering the mysteries of the universe. In Requiem for a Dream, Aronofsky again deployed expressionism to bring out the paranoid nightmare lives of a group of helpless addicts including the ever-crazy Jared Leto. In his Oscar-winning Black Swan, the director went to perhaps the most terrifying psychological landscape he's ever explored: inside the head of a disturbed ballerina played by Natalie Portman.
Aronofsky's upcoming movie mother! starring Jennifer Lawrence (who dropped out of a Richard Linklater project to join) is somewhat of a mystery film at the present moment, but a new piece of artwork would seem to indicate that the movie will take Aronofsky and his viewers down another dark and unnerving path.
Paramount has released the first poster for the psychological horror just in time for Mother's Day. The painted image features Jennifer Lawrence in a hot-house/jungle setting surrounded by vines and flowers, ripping her own heart out of her body. Check it out in all its gory glory below.
It's certainly an unsettling poster and one that suggests Aronofsky won't be pulling any punches. There's a disturbing contrast between the almost tranquil look on Lawrence's face and the fact that she's holding her own bleeding heart in her hands and has a giant gaping wound in her chest.
The film's synopsis says it's about a couple whose relationship is put to the test when unwanted guests show up to disrupt their peaceful existence. With a script by Aronofsky, we can only assume that this initial situation leads to a deep-dive into the darker areas of the characters' souls. It would seem unlikely that Lawrence would literally tear her own heart out at any point in the film, although with this director you never know; Black Swan featured some pretty intense visuals.
Reports around the internet have indicated that mother! explores territory similar to Black Swan. Portman won an Oscar for her performance in that film, and if Lawrence has a similarly towering role she could be a favorite this year. At the very least, the actress is looking for a bit of a bounce-back after receiving poor reviews for her science fiction film Passengers.
Mother! features a cast of potential Oscar nominees, including Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ed Harris, Domhnall Gleeson and Kristen Wiig. The film is set to be released on October 13th, 2017.
Next: What Went Wrong With Passengers?
Source: Paramount Pictures
