Dead Ringers: By far my favorite film of the marathon,
Dead Ringers is the descent into despair of twin brothers/hot shot gynecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantle. Elliot is the stereotypical playboy - women want him, and men want to be him. But, he also loves his quiet and solemn brother Elliot, so after he sleeps with a woman, he sends Elliot out with her so he can enjoy the same pleasures. This unseemly system keeps them in perfect harmony together and they have their lives planned out (Elliot will do the research and Beverly will present the papers once they get a tenure at a university). Until that is a new client and eventual lover, Claire Niveau, a famous actress on location in Toronto, comes into their lives and figures out their little ruse. Beverly quickly falls in love with her and makes the mistake of indulging in Claire's drug habits. From there, we see an incredible tailspin into drug addiction and insanity (also crazy, quasi-medieval gynecological devices). There is some typical Cronenbergian creepiness, but it is used sparingly and, instead, the film has a quiet sense of dread throughout. For editing and special effects geeks there are also some amazing sequences with both Elliot and Beverly in the frame. The real special effect though is Jeremy Irons giving one of the most spectacular performances ever put to celluloid. Iron's plays each brother as their own person but many times makes his performance a bit ambiguous so it takes a moment to figure out if he is Elliot, Beverly, Beverly playing Elliot or Elliot playing Beverly. The fact that it really takes only a moment to know exactly what character he is without costume or makeup changes expresses just how much of an achievement this performance(s) is. Irons individualizes both characters but, at other times, making it ambiguous which one he is playing. I think Iron's performance exemplifies one of the most interesting themes of the film; that even though the brothers are two people, they are really just one unit. If Elliot is happy, then so is Beverly, if Beverly is sick, so is Elliot. Irons show this symbiosis in his performance. The two brothers are not Siamese twins physically but instead are bound to each other spiritually and emotionally. Heartbreaking, incestuous, and strange,
Dead Ringers stands out in Cronenberg's body of work as his crowning achievement.
Crash: On this blog, I try to only recommend films and not trash ones that I dislike. Unfortunately, with our marathons, sometimes you encounter a movie that is just so not your cup of tea. My immediate, initial, and lasting impression of this film can be summed up quite succinctly: Crash is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. James Spader (who, at times can be creepily sexy... in other films) is James Ballard, a successful producer married to a gorgeous woman with a fetish: the only way they can get off is to have sex with other people and tell each other about it. After he gets in a terrible car crash the woman in the other car, Helen, (Holly Hunter) flashes him her breast (as her dead husband has flown through both windshields. She doesn't seem the least bit bothered). As James finds himself going deeper and deeper into a new fetish: cars. This includes, but is not limited to: having sex in cars, caressing cars, crashing cars, and recreating celebrity car crashes. The film is supposed to be an erotic thriller about sex and death, but it came off as sterile, uncaring, and, frankly, a little dumb. I think if Cronenberg had infused similar humor as had been in some of his other films, the movie could have been much more interesting. Instead we have a group of people who really don't seem to care about their own lives and honestly don't seem to be enjoying the supposed thrill they are supposed to be getting from their car fetish. Elias Koteas is the films's one bright spot for me as the leader of the car crash societyVaughan. Koteas channels a young Robert DeNiro a la Travis Bickle and delivers a charismatic, creepy, bizarre, sexy, depraved and joyful performance. If only the rest of the film had as much life as Koteas delivers.
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| Mon Boo's big scene! |
Cosmopolis: Unlike
Dead Ringers, which I loved and
Crash, which I hated,
Cosmopolis mostly just left me cold. The story centers on Eric Packer, (Robert Pattinson), a young billionaire travelling across town to get a haircut. What starts out as a fairly normal day becomes worse and worse as it goes on: there are protesters all across town, Packer is having a fight with his new wife, he may be losing his fortune and there is a man threatening to kill him. Packer is stuck in the car but receives visits from various employees, business advisers, lovers, and the doctor who gives him a daily prostate exam. Pattinson gives a surprisingly (and somewhat paradoxically) charismatic performance of a young businessman who seems completely dispassionate, and there are a couple of standout performances by Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon, and of course, my beloved Mathieu Amalric, who is the only person who seems to be having any fun with the surreal premise and slightly heightened environment. With highly stylized dialogue, the film can be a bit of a slog because everyone seems to be spouting faux philosophic treatises and most of the dialogue is delivered in a monotone from everyone. The film builds to a showdown between Pattison and the man who wants to kill him (Paul Giamatti, also doing his best "crazy homeless person" impression). But ultimately, like Eric , I didn't care what happened to him or any of the other characters (except Mon Boo, of course).
Julie
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