As language has evolved over time, things can get lost in translation even within regions that speak the same language. More often than not, it is not what words that are used but how they are said that is making the true point. This may be a strange way to start my review of Mother Mary, but it DOES play a role.
David Lowery (The Green Knight) directs here with a cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, and Sian Clifford in a story that takes place in the UK as you have a world famous singer in Mother Mary (Hathaway) about to start a huge world tour. When she meets up with world famous clothes designer named Sam Anselm (Coel) at her work studio to get a hew outfit for the tour, what should have just been another dress consultation turns into a very emotional meeting where their buried past comes to light.
On a positive note, there is some nice set construction here from the working studio to the exteriors and more. Unfortunately, that is all I can say about this film that is positive: I literally got nothing out of this film and felt it simply wasted my time. It’s basically two people talking through what felt like code more than anything in a failed attempt to use the same style of storytelling used in films like The Breakfast Club where we get to know the characters by the dialog itself, but it just doesn’t get there. Furthering this point, I lost track of the number of times where I wondered what the point of a scene was all the way through it; it felt like I was on the outside looking in on two people talking “inside jokes” on purpose.
At almost two hours long, over half of Mother Mary could have easily been cut even to the point of being a short film. If you are a fan of nuanced, arthouse films, you may like it, but the average movie fan may have trouble keeping up with it. Honestly, the first time I watched Pink Floyd’s The Wall, I was able to understand that film easier than this one. Plain and simply put: there is NO Way I can recommend this film nor will I ever watch it ever again, and it will get my “un-coveted Maze Runner Promise” that lands it at the bottom party of my year-long list.