What Does The Ending Of mother! Really Mean?

8. Is It All A Drug-Induced Dream?

Darren Aronofsky has a thing about playing with the perception of reality: in both Black Swan and Requiem For A Dream he plays with the idea of dosing and escapism that make the films' portrait of reality completely unreliable.

mother! continues that sort of idea, as - without any real attempt to explain it - Jennifer Lawrence's character repeatedly seeks comfort from her pain through substance abuse (the mysterious golden powder she adds to water). And it's telling that she hides its existence from Michelle Pfeiffer's character when she asks about pain-killers - that's just typical addict behaviour.

Ironically, of course, her pregnancy makes Mother remove the drugs from the equation as she pours them away, but that doesn't necessarily mean we then entered the realms of reality. It's a little too coincidental that she seems to will the pregnancy into being - remember, dreams are said to be wish fulfilment - and that her husband is suddenly able to write once more.

And it could easily be read thatthe escalation of the final act and the startling move into weirder territory could be her mind's struggle to deal with the removal of her fix. That too has been a motif for Aronofsky before, and even if only some parts of the film demand such a drug-related reading, the idea of altered perception and trustworthy narrative is very pertinent all the way through.