If you thought that the most disturbing movie of the year would be It (I mean, the film does star a child-eating clown, after all), then you clearly have not heard about Mother!, Darren Aronofsky's twisted new thriller that stars Jennifer Lawrence as a walking, talking mixed metaphor. (Is she Mother Earth? Mother Mary? Who knows!)
While you may be hard pressed to find a way to discuss Mother! without spoiling the film for folks who have yet to settle in for this wild ride, here is one fun fact you can share with non-viewers, sans spoilers: The brothers in the movie? Turns out that they're related in real life, too.
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Now, some spoilers.
Towards the midpoint of the film, "Mother" (J Law) and "Him" (Javier Bardem) are visited by the children of their house guests, "Man" (Ed Harris) and "Woman" (Michelle Pfeiffer). The characters are simply known as "Oldest Son" (Domhnall Gleeson) and "Younger Brother" (Brian Gleeson). And no, it's not a coincidence that they look so much alike. As PopSugar reports, Mother! actually cast real brothers in the film to reenact the Cain and Abel story.
If you're a hardcore Harry Potter fan, you already know that Domhnall's Oldest Son is actually the eldest child of a different family — the Weasley clan. (One more fun fact: the pair's father, Brendan, portrays Mad-Eye Moody in the films.) Domhnall has also been in more than his fair share of films since the wizarding franchise, starring in The Revenant, About Time, and even having a role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Brian, meanwhile, appears in Logan Lucky, Snow White and the Huntsman, and recently starred in mini-series Rebellion.
Of course, it's Mother! that will haunt our nightmares forever. In Lawrence's latest endeavour, one brother kills the other over their father's will. It's a story straight out of the Bible, which writer, director, and producer Aronofsky confirmed in an interview with Collider.
"There [are] completely Biblical elements that I’m surprised — some people are really picking up on [them] immediately, other people have no clue, and I think that’s just how people are brought up," Aronofsky told the outlet. "But that was the structure of the film was the Bible, using that as a way of discussing how humans have lived here on Earth. But it was also meant to be sort of ambiguous because that’s not really a story, it’s more of a structural thing. A lot of people aren’t picking up on all of it, there’s lots of little things and Easter Eggs and how things connect, and I think that’s the fun of unpacking the movie."
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One thing that solidifies the Gleeson brothers' characters as stand-ins for Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and Eve? The fact that their father was vomiting up his rib — right before "Woman" shows up in the movie. Get it, you guys?!? DO YOU GET IT?!?
We will never be able to forget Mother! (no matter how hard we try to get certain images out of our brain), but hey, at least the Gleeson bros got to share a screen.