Recent David Cronenberg release. I liked it. Slow moving, ponderous and deliberate, you can see the twist a mile off but that’s actually an indication of how well you get to know the character of Spider. Fiennes, as Spider, was great mumbling and stumbling along, giving him a real sense of paranoia and schizophrenia; a man truly broken by his madness. Miranda Richardson was also very good, pulling off two rolls in the film that had me confused for a good 30 mins. With Gabriel Byrne also in there Cronenberg must have been very happy with the cast he had assembled.
It feels very different from the rest of Cronenberg’s movies… probably because he had no hand in writing it. Still has the trademark “What’s real, what’s in your mind?” schtick which he does very well (admitidly over and over again). There was none of his body modification/morphing going on either. It’s a movie for a more mature audience. When I say more mature it’s more of an adult themed movie. I think a lot of Cronenberg’s movies appeal to adolescents because of the elements he uses; the fantasy of discovering that you are someone else, that your body is changing, the wonder and the fright of drugs and the power of one’s mind and actions. Very relevent themes for teenagers.
Spider is a careful character study with solid performances, more like a slightly warped BBC drama than typical Cronenberg.
