MOTHER MARY

Name: MOTHER MARY
Item: MOTHER MARY
Author: Review

“Marred by Occult Content and Symbolism”

Family Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

MOTHER MARY is a psychological drama and ghost story, literally and figuratively. An iconic pop star named Mother Mary reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer on the eve of her comeback performance. Mary wants Sam, short for Samantha, to design a new dress for the concert. The meeting causes some long-buried wounds to rise to the surface. Ten years ago, Mother Mary kicked her friend and costume designer to the curb, saying she alone held responsibility for her unique designs. Their conflict faces interruption by mystical visits from an amorphous red ghost that’s possessed by Mary. The ghostly figure seems to symbolize the wounds between the women, such as Sam’s anger and hurt and Mother Mary’s guilt.

MOTHER MARY is a slow slog that’s interrupted by the mystical encounters with the red ghost. The songs remain hard to understand in MOTHER MARY, which contains nine strong obscenities and profanities. The movie’s mixture of Christian and occult symbolism is abhorrent. MOTHER MARY focuses too much on character and design and not enough on story and plot. It’s a bit confusing too.

Content:

(PaPa, C, OO, Ho, LL, VV, S, NN, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed pagan worldview where a pop star uses the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene to create her iconic image/persona which appears with a costumed halo during her performances, but the pop star publicly said she alone was responsible for creating the persona when her friend and former costume designer may have had more of a hand in it than she did, and for the following 10 years both women are haunted by the same amorphous red ghost looking like a piece of silky red fabric, which also seems to possess the pop star, and there’s a séance scene that manifests the red ghost, and a scene where the two women try to have an exorcism ceremony, plus the pop star and the costume designer seem to have lesbian feelings toward one another that may or may not be unrequited

Foul Language:

Nine obscenities include six “f” words, two profane uses of the name of Jesus Christ, one GD profanity, and one light profanity

Violence:

A medium during a séance stabs a woman in the hand with a pendant, a woman cuts her sternum with a pair of scissors, and her friend pulls out the red cloth ghost that’s inside the woman, singer falls from a high platform but a safety harness catches her and hangs there, a couple other falls occur during dancing

Sex:

No depicted or implied sex scenes, but movie implies that a pop star has had or has lesbian feelings or a relationship with her former female costume designer

Nudity:

Patial rear female nudity in a stage costume

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

None.

More Detail:

MOTHER MARY is a psychological drama and ghost story, literally and figuratively, about what happens when an iconic pop star called Mother Mary reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer on the eve of Mary’s comeback performance, and the meeting causes long-buried wounds to rise to the surface. MOTHER MARY is a slow slog that’s interrupted by mystical encounters with an amorphous red ghost. The ghostly figure seems to symbolize the wounds that occurred when, 10 years ago, Mother Mary kicked her friend and costume designer to the curb and said she alone held responsibility for her unique look. Now, both women face the ghost, which looks like a silky piece of flowing red cloth.

MOTHER MARY focuses too much on character and design and not enough on story and plot. That, and the fact that the movie centers on a pop star and her former costume designer, makes the movie obtuse, especially for the general moviegoer. MOTHER MARY is also plagued by the occult content involving the red ghost, including a séance and a half-hearted exorcism ritual. The movie’s also marred by nine strong obscenities and profanities, plus uncomfortable but vague hints of lesbian lust.

Of course, the title character in MOTHER MARY clearly draws influence by the careers of such famous pop stars as Madonna and Lady Gaga, and lesser known artists like Annie Clark, also known as St. Vincent. It’s interesting to note that Madonna carries a name that conjures up images of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, but she combined those images with sultry references to Mary Magdalene, Marilyn Monroe, and sex.

Anne Hathaway plays Mother Mary. Michaela Coel plays the costume designer, Sam, short for Samantha. Mary comes to Sam at the last minute to design a new dress for her that expresses the vision they both shared when they started. The red ghost seems to represent Sam’s feelings of anger and hurt toward Mother Mary, and perhaps also Mother Mary’s guilt for betraying her friend. Some may find this as shallow pop psychology. Be that as it may be, the movie’s combination of Christian and occult symbolism lacks a proper spiritual, moral or biblical foundation. Thus, MOVIEGUIDE® judges MOTHER MARY as having a strong pagan worldview, resulting in an abhorrent movie overall. The movie’s also a bit confusing.