Shadows on the Wall | Mother Mary

Mother Mary

dir-scr David Lowery
prd Toby Halbrooks, Jeanie Igoe, James M Johnston, David Lowery, Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo
with Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, Sian Clifford, Atheena Frizzell, FKA Twigs, Kaia Gerber, Alba Baptista, Jessica Brown Findlay, Isaura Barbe-Brown, Jeanne Nicole Ni Ainle, Taylor Sieve
release US 17.Apr.26,
UK 24.Apr.26
26/UK A24 1h52

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Ambitious visual flourishes add a cinematic touch to a script that feels like a stage play, essentially an extended conversation. Writer-director David Lowery delights in upending expectations, swirling an exploration of fame and identity with a moving look at a long-time relationship, plus a seriously bonkers ghost story. It looks amazing, and the actors are excellent, but keeping a grip on the narrative and thematic through-lines isn't easy.

During a downpour in the English countryside, pop legend Mother Mary (Hathaway) turns up at the atelier of Sam Anselm (Coel), the fashion designer who created her iconic look. For her next concert, Mary needs a dress, rejecting what her entourage has come up with. And she'll be happy with anything that isn't red. Sam is reluctant, still smarting a decade after their falling out, but she starts probing Mary with questions. And as these two women recount stories from the intervening years, they discover that they share an experience with a floaty red ghost.

Cameras circle around Mary and Sam as they speak, with flashbacks staged as if they're taking place in Sam's workshop barn alongside them. This creates some striking imagery, catching our attention even if we have nagging doubts about the depth of this material. Surely it can't be as simple as two women working through the unspoken distance that has grown between them? Cutaways offer glimpses of their tight connection in the past, as well as Mary's grand-scale concert performances, with evocative songs by Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX and FKA Twigs, who appears as a fan leading Mary into a spooky seance.

Hathaway and Coel prowl around each other beautifully, skilfully revealing their internal wounds, as well as symbolic external ones. Each brings a distinct style of magnetism to the screen, contrasting Mary's entitled stardom with Sam's more poetic artistry. But the script never makes much about differences in their backgrounds, instead zeroing in on the internal pain they are both struggling to define.

Other characters emerge here and there without much definition, most notably Schafer as Sam's alert assistant. And much of the plot itself remains oddly blurred into the background. So we search for clues into the deeper meaning in dialog and scenes that are clearly meant to be metaphorical. This is fun for a while, but in the end we are merely dazzled by the riotous imagery, moody songs and emotive acting.

themes, language, violence 24.Apr.26

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