Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Spider (2002)
David Cronenberg’s “Spider” is a somber-as-ash take on a man bowed by schizophrenia that dares to not provide a miracle ending with “Big Movie Climax!” stamped in red ink. There is no escape here from the dark. We first see Dennis Cleg (Ralph Fiennes) deboard a London train, alone, shuffling, mumbling, his vital possessions – money and directions to a boarding house – stuffed in a sock. Dennis was raised in the neighborhood of his new home, and there he wonders – in his mind, for real, one does not know for sure – back to his 1950s youth with a mercurial father (Gabriel Byrne) and dotting mother (Miranda Richardson). Here’s where the spider’s web starts to form as we, through Dennis’ barely functioning mind, piece together a murder. In present day, the murk darkens as the dead mother seems to live on. Fiennes never budges from Dennis’ inner turmoil, his every move made with fear of punishment, and it’s a brilliant performance. Cronenberg traps us in Dennis’ world, itself trapped inside London’s dark-as-hell industrial gas district, which seems to exist in the same realm as David Lynch’s “Eraserhead,” another story with a narrator not only unreliable but quite mad. A-
Labels:
2002,
best,
dark,
David Cronenberg,
drama,
Eraserhead,
Gabriel Byrne,
London,
mental illness,
Miranda Richardson,
Ralph Fiennes,
Spider movie,
twisted
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