I have friends that are pretty divided when it comes to people like Darren Aronofsky and Christopher Nolan. I’m willing to give Aronofsky some of the benefit of the doubt, but by no means that does mean he has my undying adulation. I’m one of the folks that doesn’t particularly care for The Black Swan (which many chalk up to my severe distaste of Natalie Portman), and I completely skipped Noah. Still, I’m willing to give new work a chance because that’s what being fair means: you don’t always like everything, and sometimes, you get to stop and praise the good while acknowledging the bad. That being said, Mother! has been getting hyped up for some time now. It’s got so many big-timey things! Jennifer Lawrence! Javier Bardem! Michelle Pfeiffer! The creepiness factor! Enough so that we’re going to look at the trailer.

I’m going to come right out and say it: Darren, why the fuck do you have a 26-year-old woman playing the love interest to a 48-year-old man? Do you have any idea how ridiculous this looks? Bardem looks rough, too; he’s not even a youthful 46. Most women I know date *maybe* 10 years older than them; the largest age difference I ever had was 18 years (that was a doozy), and the dynamic was unbelievably fucked up. In a world where there are action heroes with 20+ year age differences with their spouses, it looks jarring. This is no different. Perhaps there’s an element of the plot to why she’s so much younger, but it feels very much like Lawrence was cast because Aronofsky wanted to work with her, not necessarily because she’d be age-appropriate for the role. It’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief and get sucked into a movie with this glaring of a distraction. I don’t really care what it’s about. I feel like I’m going to spend the entire time watching Aronofsky writing a love letter to his newest girlfriend through art. That gets obnoxious fast.