MOTHER MARY
**
Directed by David Lowery.
Starring Anne Hathaway, Michaela Cole, Hunter Schafer.
Horror, US, 112 Minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in Cinemas in the UK on April 24th by A24
Writer and director David Lowery has always made a point of flitting between genres and hopping from his celebrated arthouse career to his much less appreciated mainstream efforts. For every THE GREEN KNIGHT, there is a PETER PAN & WENDY. This latest film could be viewed as an attempt to marry these two sensibilities together. A horror tinged chamber piece about a haunted popstar, riffing on easily identifiable current megastars, starring Anne Hathaway and writer/actress wunderkind Michaela Cole released under the banner of the always trendy A24 studio sounds like a sure thing that could get a large audience and critics onside. What we get instead is a po-faced and timid exercise in metaphor and symbolism that has next to nothing to say about any of its subjects or a plot that can whisk us away into the pressures of fame compounded with the supernatural.
Hathaway plays the titular singer, always seen onstage in sparkly costumes, high heels and a trademark halo. Traumatised by a shocking onstage incident which is briefly glimpsed at the film's very beginning, the celebrated star quickly travels across the Atlantic to visit her estranged costume designer Sam Anselm, who is now very much in demand for her designs since an unexplained rift years before drove the two women apart. Mary explains her desperation to see her old friend is for Sam to design a new dress for her to perform what she claims to be the greatest song ever in three days time. The bemused Sam agrees, seemingly only to throw barbed comments at Mary who seems desperate to reconcile. As they talk, and talk, of their past glories and ruined relationship the truth behind Mary’s troubled nature becomes apparent as an otherworldly presence seems to link these two women together in more ways than one.
Pop music and horror are a great fit; SMILE 2 improved on its predecessor with a truly nightmarish look at the pressures of fame and performance in a striking manner that is missing here. In discussing influences for this film, Lowery has remarked that TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERA’S TOUR concert film was a major influence for him. After watching this you may wonder if that is the only exposure to pop music or concerts he has had as this is quite a shallow and vapid film, no matter how portentous and metaphorical the intense dialogue gets between Hathaway and Cole. Mary performs onstage, strutting in front of a sea of mobile phone lights, performing songs written by current trendsetters Charli XCX and FKA Twigs, who also cameos here in terrible style, but as relevant as Lowery tries to make this whole endeavour it always rings hollow, not reminding you of those singular talents but M. Night Shymalan’s daft and unconvincing TRAP from two years ago.
Even when the film takes a turn for the bonkers, it still feels remarkably cack-handed. After one of the most lifeless seance sequences in cinema history, the film reveals its fantastical side, while still maintaining its heavy handed symbolic nature. The film then becomes a series of set pieces that you would not be surprised to find out were originally conceived as music videos. There is a certain amount of style contained here but it somehow feels out of place, especially when what has come before has been so stagey and lifeless. Maybe this could work better as a live multi-media project onstage, but such different approaches in this one particular medium only highlight how shallow this is. It is not quite a musical, not quite a horror and frankly not that much of a film.
Hathaway and Cole make for an intriguing double act at first, but the coy nature that Lowery employs to hint at the true depth of their relationship soon becomes tiring, especially with the film’s lackluster excuse for an ending which aims for emotional showstopping catharsis but instead becomes something quite cringe worthy. This is one of those films which, while it disappoints you, also reminds you of other, better films you would rather watch, mainly Peter Strickland’s haunted dress oddity IN FABRIC and that previously mentioned SMILE sequel. Pop fans who have barely any experience with horror may have their minds blown but the rest of us are more likely to walk away bemused and disappointed at this bewildering misfire. The songs are alright though.
Iain MacLeod