MOTHER MARY
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, and Hunter Schafer
Director: David Lowery
NICK
Despite marketing stating the opposite, Mother Mary is both a love story and a ghost story, and I can't say either worked. Although the film aims to put the viewer under a trance, it didn't achieve that for me. Instead, it presents a moderately interesting character drama between a terrific Michaela Coel and a game Anne Hathaway, only to devolve into the aforementioned ghost story, which was much less interesting and, honestly, a little corny. The one clear highlight here is the music, and perhaps that trance could have been achieved if I got more of it.
ADRIANO
While watching Mother Mary, I was captivated by writer/director David Lowery’s surreal vision to the point of transcendence. Whether it’s the chamber drama first act or the poppy, ghost story back half, the filmmaking on display put me in an outright trance. The music and the performances from Michaela Coel and Anne Hathaway add to that feeling. But once the trance was over, the movie began to feel hollow, as Lowery’s characters and messaging amounted to little more than what was on the surface. I’ll see it again for sure, but Mother Mary doesn’t amount to much beyond a sensory experience.
