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In Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, mother!, Jennifer Lawrence plays the wife of a poet (Javier Bardem) who is struggling to find the inspiration for his next piece of writing. As the film starts, Lawrence’s character (named “mother” in the credits) is putting the final touches to her own project: rebuilding the writer’s childhood home, which was destroyed in a fire years ago. It is in this secluded mansion that the two now live, each tending to their own creations, each creation intimately tied up with the other.

When a fan of the poet (Ed Harris) arrives – soon followed by the other members of his dangerously dysfunctional family – the house becomes the stage for an act of a bloody familial drama. Inspired by these intruders and their gruesome scenes, and his wife’s sudden pregnancy; the poet finds he can finally write. Almost overnight he becomes famous. As more fans appear, they once again take over the house in an increasingly destructive and spectacular orgy of adoration.

Much like Aronofsky’s previous films, mother! dramatises the psychological effects of fetishising success and power (both someone else’s and our own) and the way we become dependent on that which is destroying us. mother! is interested in looking at how close together the paths of creation and destruction can run. It depicts the way these two impulses feed back into each other and, when left unchecked, become indistinguishable from one another. These clear themes however take a turn by the end, as mother! becomes a kind of parable couched in Christian themes, that stages the conflictual relationship between God, Mother Nature, and humankind.

Additionally, as the title and allegory implies, mother! shows the uneven way in which creativity is gendered. He (literally named ‘Him’ in the credits) writes a poem and achieves fame; she rebuilds his home and achieves motherhood. Her creations and achievements are eclipsed and destroyed by his; eventually she is only recognised in relation to his writing as the nameless ‘inspiration’.

However, as the film progresses from absurdist farce to violent spectacle, the allegorical and self-referential elements become crudely and sensationally incorporated. It seems Aronofsky has fallen for precisely the danger he is trying to represent: seduced by the allure of his own creation, the creator loses control of it. mother! is so invested in its own ability to enrapture an audience with visual pyrotechnics and grand mythical themes that it becomes a meagre melodrama. It is more interested in repeating the obvious gendered stereotypes about creativity than actually investigating them. A minimal script which at the beginning allows Lawrence and Bardem to develop a muted tension, by the end proves to be nothing more than an insubstantial allegory for the creative process.

Considering the film’s emphasis on the affective power of art, it is disappointing that mother! can’t itself seem to provoke anything more than superficial shock and deep frustration from its audiences.