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There’s a fine line between artful eroticism and mere titillation. It sure was indeed titillating to see the gorgeous soon-to-be-50 Julianne Moore making out with Amanda Seyfried, the buxom beaut half her age; but suffice it to say, the Atom Egoyan film Chloe didn’t manage to create what we subjectively refer to as “art”. The film, which is a remake of the French movie Nathalie..., began well. The seemingly happy marriage of Catherine, a well-established doctor, and David (Liam Neeson), a respected music professor, is crumbling. The wife suspects that her husband is cheating on her with his young students, and employes Chloe (Seyfried), a high-class escort, to test her husband’s fidelity. Unfortunately, what seemed to be going towards being a gripping and intense urban examination of marriage and mid-life crisis, took a sharp turn to instead become a cautionary tale of lust and obsession – all hinging on a twist never properly integrated into the plot progression. The eponymous character of Chloe, who at the end forms the fulcrum that brings the fast-receding couple together again, wasn’t developed enough for us to appreciate the slow devastation she starts wreaking on the unsuspecting Catherine’s life. The character of the couple’s alienated son, too, was half-baked. The acting in the film, however, are good throughout, with Moore’s being standout performance.
Director: Atom Egoyan
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller
Language: English
Country: Canada
Made right after the tremendous commercial success he received for his remake of The Fly, Dead Ringers remains a creative high-point in controversial Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg’s career. Cronenberg’s fixation with the grotesque side of human psyche was furthered in this intensely disturbing tale of two identical-twin brothers – the aggressive and suave Elliott and the introverted and sensitive Beverly, both renowned medical practitioners in the field of gynecology. Their radical breakthroughs in their field, however, obscure their shocking, even scandalous, personal “conquests”. However, when Beverly falls in love with an overtly promiscuous actress, his life starts falling apart courtesy clinical depression and addiction to prescription drugs; and with their eerie sense of equilibrium destroyed, it is a now matter of time before Elliott too gets sucked into the void of insanity. The movie is a relentlessly dark, brooding, unsettling and emotionally disquieting study on identity, perversity, misogyny, mental disintegration and raging madness. And at the forefront of this chilling and compelling tale of psychological terror, lies the virtuoso and devastating performance of Jeremy Irons as both the brothers, achieved through terrific use of SFX that set a benchmark for films portraying identical twins.
Director: David Cronenberg
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller
Language: English
Country: Canada
Spider, unlike his earlier films, might not be bordering on the bizarre or grotesque, but it is in line with Canadian horror maestro David Cronenberg’s latent obsession with delving into the darkest of corners of the human mind. Adapted by Patrick McGrath from his own novel, Spider is a chilling and compelling account of a boy-man with a severely damaged mind, forever haunted by the dark memories of a horrible deed from his past. Released after spending twenty years in a mental asylum and allowed to take residence in a halfway house, Spider, as he roams the bleak and dreary landscapes of London, initially appears to be a man who has changed for the better, despite his many idiosyncrasies. However, we are gradually apprised of the fact that his mental decay has crossed the point of no return, and as he gets more and more enmeshed into the grimy details of his life in a dysfunctional blue-collar family, his fragile mind gets ever more close to getting irreparably and violently shattered. Ralph Fiennes has turned in a devastating, brooding, disquieting and ultimately triumphant performance as the quietly paranoid and forever muttering Spider, living an existence that is so isolated and volatile that most viewers might find the movie a difficult watch. The immaculately paced and nightmarish film also boasts of superb performances by the luscious Miranda Richardson as three distinctly different characters and Gabriel Byrne as Spider’s brutish father.
Director: David Cronenberg
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Psychological Horror
Language: English
Country: UK/Canada
Even long before he went ‘mainstream’ with the masterly A History of Violence and its engaging quasi-sequel Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg enjoyed cult status among horror aficionados. And if you were to believe them, Videodrome, released way back in 1982, was his first great masterpiece. Though I wouldn’t go that far, I’d still call it a very interesting movie that deserves wider dissemination. Of course, given that the maker is Cronenberg, there’s a catch here – this deeply distressing and unabashedly provocative look into paranoia, hallucination, sadomasochism, mental breakdown and the decidedly sinister nature of technology, is certainly not meant for everyone. The movie isn’t just non-conformist, or for that matter grotesque and lurid, it is deeply shocking as well – for its content graphic violence and gore, as well as for its deliberate depiction of sexual innuendoes. The movie is about a sleazy television network owner, played with characteristic energy by James Woods, who accidentally stumbles upon an underground broadcast that unleashes upon him a chain of grisly consequences. Despite its typically B-movie look, the been-there-done-that sort of harangue on the evils lurking behind the friendly garb of technology, and the extremely disturbing contents, one must nonetheless appreciate the director’s bravado, the terrific SFX, and the bizarre yet vivid visual (and psychological) imageries.
Director: David Cronenberg
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi Horror/Psychological Horror/B-Film
Language: English
Country: Canada
Directed by Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter is a sweeping deconstruction of a tragic event that has shattered the idyllic peace of a quaint village in Canada. The account of the events preceding and following a school-bus accident that has killed most of the kids in it, and the apparently selfless effort of a troubled and detached yet compassionate lawyer (Ian Holm has put in a brilliant performance laced with subtlety and world-weariness) striving to give the people of the town some sense of justice, is portrayed with devastating confidence. Every character has a story to tell which is presented via a fractured narrative making the tale even more compelling and heart-rending. Topics ranging from broken family to illicit affair to even murkier secrets have been captured with beautiful sensitivity and pathos, as the movie is led to a truly memorable climax. As a critic has marvelously put it, the movie is a stirring ode to the cyclical nature of human suffering.
Director: Atom Egoyan
Genre: Drama/Rural Drama/Ensemble Film/Psychological Drama
Language: English
Country: Canada
