Review Date:
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: Patrick McGrath
Producers: David Cronenberg, Samuel Hadida
Actors:
Ralph Fiennes as Dennis Cleg Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Cleg Gabriel Byrne as Bill Cleg |
Having said that, I absolutely loved its production value, which was idyllically bleak and added to the film’s already gloomy storyline. Howard Shore’s score also brought everyone down effectively, while the stripped-down streets of England concretized the film’s dire outlook. While watching the movie, it started to feel like a morbid conglomeration of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, David Lynch’s ERASERHEAD and LOST HIGHWAY, Sigmund Freud’s “Oedipus” complex, as well as films like MEMENTO and DARK CITY. If you’re going to discuss acting, the film scores even more points, especially via the brilliant portrayal presented here by Ralph Fiennes as the man who cannot remember much from his past, but is agonizingly trying to piece it all back together. Gabriel Byrne also shows up to drink up a storm (great man), while Miranda Richardson astonished with not one, but two separate characterizations, one of which I wasn’t even aware of until the end credits. Great job, girl…loved the slutty chick! Nobody’s going to leave the theater jumping for joy after seeing this flick, but if you like films that delve inside the human psyche, whether it be sane or insane, real or perceived, you will definitely have much to discuss after this journey through the human condition. I liked it a lot, especially its web metaphors, the sexual confusion between son and mother, Cronenberg’s remarkable eye and ability to mindmelt the audience with this one twisted individual, as well as its many claustrophobic moments. I also appreciated how the film visually acknowledged its lead character as he relived his past experiences. Nice. A definite downer but wonderfully portrayed and a pleasantly dark experience all around.
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