Cronenberg's Dark Side

Watching a movie by David Cronenberg is like seeing one of his faces - the director has a dark face and another bright one! I've always liked his works when he's showing his bright side, even in movies about violence, conflict and revenge - A History Of Violence, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method, etc. It's his dark and shocking side that always puzzled and lost me. This is exactly the case when I saw his latest film Cosmopolis which is as dark and 'out there' as some of his other works: The Fly, Dead Ringers, Spider.

Cosmopolis is an adaptation of Don DeLillo's book of the same name. It's supposed to be futuristic although it was written quite a while ago. Yet it's also very timely because of the current animosity towards capitalism and wealth. Protagonist Eric Packer (played by Robert Pattinson of  The Twilight Saga fame) embarked on a stretch-limousine ride in Manhattan to try to get a haircut in a barber shop across town. The car made many stops along the way and incidents also happened within the limousine.

I know the limousine ride is supposed to be a symbolic journey. But the pace is so slow that the audience can't keep asking: what's the point? Like the intolerable The Tree Of Life, six of the people in the same cinema with me walked out shortly after the movie has begun. Maybe they didn't read the reviews about the film's eccentricity and were expecting something else? I was forewarned - I stuck to my seat till the very end, but didn't like the movie. Maybe I wouldn't have liked the book as well since Cronenberg's movie, I heard, is quite true to the novel. The currency was changed from yen to yuan (reminbi) to make the plot more relevant to current times.

The cast is all great. I've never watched The Twilight series, but 29-year-old Robert Pattinson must be one of the most promising young actors of our times. Not only is he good looking, but he's got this magnetism that sucks you right into his character. I won't be surprised if he were selected by the Hollywood studios to play Christian Grey, the male protagonist in the best-selling novel by E.L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey, in its upcoming big-screen version. Paul Giamatti, Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton and Sarah Gadon (from A Dangerous Method) are equally good although Giamatti looks a bit scary in his role and Binoche just hasn't aged very well.

You can count on Canadian director Cronenberg to work with a lot of his native talents - 25-year-old Gadon is a student at the University of Tornto and even musician K'Naan has a minor role in the movie. Also, if you live in Toronto, you couldn't have missed the various Hogtown spots - Hotel Le Germain, Union Station and others. Otherwise, it looks like Manhattan to everybody else!

I'm glad that this film didn't win the Palm d'Or Award at Cannes. Maybe Cronenberg can now shoot his next movie and show us his other face?