A pop star needs a makeover in 'Mother Mary' but one dress keeps getting in the way

In 2024, Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” utilized architecture arsenic a metaphor for Hollywood filmmaking itself — the grinding hustle required to trade thing epic successful scope, infused with a idiosyncratic story, but yet babelike connected patrons who mightiness exploit artists alternatively than enactment them. One could reason that “Mother Mary” is indie auteur David Lowery’s akin attempt, successful that it’s a movie that explores the idiosyncratic hazards of originative collaboration, this clip utilizing popular superstardom arsenic a stand-in for playing the Hollywood game.

When made connected a grand, concern scale, creation requires a team, ever with the hazard of important contributors feeling discarded oregon resentful. Lowery explores this thought successful extent successful “Mother Mary,” portion suggesting that these aforesaid wounded feelings tin beryllium a root of originative energy, pulled from the heart, slapped connected a array and shaped into thing beautiful. It’s a process that is messy, quality and complicated.

“Mother Mary” is simply a phantasmagoric fever imagination of a gothic popular opera, but it is besides a single-setting speech movie that pits 2 of our astir mesmerizing actors against each different successful a verbal pas de deux of wordy accusation and buried betrayals.

International euphony icon Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) shows up astatine the English property of famed manner decorator Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel), her erstwhile costume designer. Mary is bedraggled and wet, begging for a gown for a comeback show successful a fewer days. Despite Sam’s simmering choler astatine the mode things ended betwixt them, she drags Mary into an aged barn for a fitting, wherever they volition enactment retired their issues, whether Mary wants to oregon not.

There, Sam unleashes reams upon reams of pent-up monologuing astir their past portion a teary Mary fills successful a fewer gaps. We often chopped distant to performance performances and flashbacks that the women ticker similar signifier plays successful the barn. Mary dances; Sam confesses she hasn’t listened to her euphony successful years, practically spitting venom astatine her erstwhile friend.

It goes connected and connected until you’re internally begging Lowery to get to the constituent already. And past abruptly helium does: This is simply a shade story, a possession tale. But we already knew it was going determination unsafe from the outset, acknowledgment to grainy footage of what seems to beryllium a convulsive on-stage incidental and a informing that Mother Mary’s opening banger “Burial” is simply a “curse.”

The movie yet transitions from the affectional tête-à-tête to the genre portion that was promised, arsenic Sam and Mary observe they’ve seen the aforesaid ghost: a horrifying reddish spectral vision. The tone enters Mary during a day séance facilitated by an acquaintance, Imogen (FKA twigs), and she can’t shingle it.

The film’s gauzy scarlet ghoul calls to caput Peter Strickland’s 2018 manner psychodrama “In Fabric,” successful which Marianne Jean-Baptiste is tormented by a haunted reddish dress, arsenic good arsenic Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” remake, filled with twisted modern creation and bodily viscera.

It’s besides apt to ponder Lowery’s ain “A Ghost Story,” astir the mode the past lingers, but the astir evident examination is to the pop-possession extravaganza “Smile 2,” successful which Naomi Scott plays a vocalist invaded by an insidious demon with a signature grin. However, “Smile 2” is some gutsier and much coherent than the cerebral and moody “Mother Mary.” Her caller azygous mightiness beryllium called “Spooky Action” but contempt a fewer gory moments, there’s not overmuch spooky enactment to beryllium recovered successful the movie arsenic a whole.

Lowery is much funny successful the quality of originative relationships and the inherent inequality successful what it means to marque creation astatine this scale. Naturally, Lowery’s ain creator collaborators are firing connected each cylinders, from Andrew Droz Palermo’s lushly surreal cinematography to archetypal songs by FKA twigs, Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX, supported by a people by Daniel Hart.

It each surely casts a spell, but the communicative devolves into atmospheric mush interpolated with excessively galore images of Hathaway mugging and posing. There’s nary question astir the endowment connected display. Coel is 1 of our astir hypnotic surface performers and, had Hathaway decided to enactment her prodigious talents toward popular euphony alternatively of acting, she’d beryllium 1 of our apical acts. Her moments arsenic Mother Mary performing unrecorded are truthful fantastic, they permission you wanting much — of her, but not needfully this plodding movie.

Katie Walsh is simply a Tribune News Service movie critic.