As some other reviews have said, the film starts out with promise. Good jump scares and lots of creepy tension, and the sense that there is a good story behind all of this.
Unfortunately, the "good story" never materializes. One is left wondering... what actually happened here? There is a BASIC story, but too many giant gaps in it to give the viewer any real satisfaction. We don't really understand the motivations behind the characters, which makes it hard to care about them, their relationship to each other, and the events that unfold.
Why did the father kill his colleagues and his estranged wife? (Yes, financial disaster, sure... but WHY KILL PEOPLE? Particularly his estranged wife? There needs to be a *slight* story here...) Why did he then go and kidnap his children? Why was he going to kill them? What the heck was the deal with this guy??? We know nothing at all about the family, except the one line that Jessica Chastain's character says -- something like, "That family is so messed up, and they were like that before me!"
So then... why is Jessica Chastain's character messed up? We know virtually NOTHING about her. Except she doesn't want kids. Ooookay. That's about as one-dimensional as a character can get.
Why are she and the girls' uncle together? There's almost no relationship depicted between them. We don't know why she is sticking around to take care of these kids she doesn't want. You don't see any real interaction between the two of them that helps explain their dynamic or story.
What is the significance of the older girl having her glasses off when she sees "Mama"? Without any kind of explanation, this just feels like a superfluous plot device.
Finally -- and perhaps most importantly -- who the heck really is "Mama" and what does she want? Yeah, we get that she was insane and had a baby and jumped off a cliff with that baby, but... everything after that is like WHY? Why did she come back as a weird apparition? Has she been terrorizing other people in the intervening years, or did she just start with the discovery of these two girls? How did she end up in the cabin? Why does she live in the walls? Why is she feeding them cherries? What is she trying to do here, in general? At one point there's discussion of "righting a wrong" being the key to freeing a ghost. But how exactly is she righting a wrong by taking the girls? Who's "wrong" was it? Hers, or someone else's? Did they take her baby from her because she was crazy? Or did she go crazy because they took her baby? Was the "wrong" the fact that she killed her child, or killed herself, or that her child was taken from her? Why was she crazy to begin with? Did something happen to HER when she was a child?
Ugh... that's not even all the questions I had after watching this movie. The one thing I DID pick up was that Lilly appears to have instantly reincarnated as a moth. It sure seemed to me like one of those sequel setup moments as Victoria looked at the moth and said, "Lilly?" And then the moth zoomed into the camera as the final shot. Sigh. If you're going to set up for a sequel, do an adequate job of telling the FIRST part of the story!
I can hardly believe all these people rated this movie as highly as they did. The stars I give it are only because the acting really is quite decent, which is rare in a movie like this, and the film itself is visually pleasing in many ways, and I genuinely felt creeped out until around the last third of it (when I just felt annoyed by all the unanswered questions). Other than that, it's a disappointment.
Unfortunately, the "good story" never materializes. One is left wondering... what actually happened here? There is a BASIC story, but too many giant gaps in it to give the viewer any real satisfaction. We don't really understand the motivations behind the characters, which makes it hard to care about them, their relationship to each other, and the events that unfold.
Why did the father kill his colleagues and his estranged wife? (Yes, financial disaster, sure... but WHY KILL PEOPLE? Particularly his estranged wife? There needs to be a *slight* story here...) Why did he then go and kidnap his children? Why was he going to kill them? What the heck was the deal with this guy??? We know nothing at all about the family, except the one line that Jessica Chastain's character says -- something like, "That family is so messed up, and they were like that before me!"
So then... why is Jessica Chastain's character messed up? We know virtually NOTHING about her. Except she doesn't want kids. Ooookay. That's about as one-dimensional as a character can get.
Why are she and the girls' uncle together? There's almost no relationship depicted between them. We don't know why she is sticking around to take care of these kids she doesn't want. You don't see any real interaction between the two of them that helps explain their dynamic or story.
What is the significance of the older girl having her glasses off when she sees "Mama"? Without any kind of explanation, this just feels like a superfluous plot device.
Finally -- and perhaps most importantly -- who the heck really is "Mama" and what does she want? Yeah, we get that she was insane and had a baby and jumped off a cliff with that baby, but... everything after that is like WHY? Why did she come back as a weird apparition? Has she been terrorizing other people in the intervening years, or did she just start with the discovery of these two girls? How did she end up in the cabin? Why does she live in the walls? Why is she feeding them cherries? What is she trying to do here, in general? At one point there's discussion of "righting a wrong" being the key to freeing a ghost. But how exactly is she righting a wrong by taking the girls? Who's "wrong" was it? Hers, or someone else's? Did they take her baby from her because she was crazy? Or did she go crazy because they took her baby? Was the "wrong" the fact that she killed her child, or killed herself, or that her child was taken from her? Why was she crazy to begin with? Did something happen to HER when she was a child?
Ugh... that's not even all the questions I had after watching this movie. The one thing I DID pick up was that Lilly appears to have instantly reincarnated as a moth. It sure seemed to me like one of those sequel setup moments as Victoria looked at the moth and said, "Lilly?" And then the moth zoomed into the camera as the final shot. Sigh. If you're going to set up for a sequel, do an adequate job of telling the FIRST part of the story!
I can hardly believe all these people rated this movie as highly as they did. The stars I give it are only because the acting really is quite decent, which is rare in a movie like this, and the film itself is visually pleasing in many ways, and I genuinely felt creeped out until around the last third of it (when I just felt annoyed by all the unanswered questions). Other than that, it's a disappointment.