For those of you reading this prior to seeing the film, I'd simply suggest that such disparate reviews for an accomplished director should be seen as praise. It means that he's taking chances, and risking offending folks. At the very least you could see this film and if offended by it, examine what you found so offensive.
what I consider ***SPOILERS*** follow .....
I think Cronenberg does a fine job working against the Hollywood archetype of such a psychodrama (or even psychosis-o-drama). The unravelling of Spider's story aligns us with him. Having a Cuckoo's Nest caretaker/warden at the very onset sets the wheels in motion.
The Hollywood diagnosis would be that the parents are to blame for the child's detachment or mental disease. Cronenberg plays with perception (both Spider's and thus the audience's). This will bother some, an untrustworthy narrator always does.
Where that perception hits its breaking point will range from viewer to viewer, but gradually we realize that Spider has spun much of what we have seen out of thin air. He begins to have trouble fitting all of the puzzle pieces in place, and thus betrays himself.
In reflecting back now, there does seem to be a very solid Freudian view to much of the action, but during my watching of the film, it never felt so heavy-handed to me.
Perhaps it was the use of Spider's fly-on-the-wall presence that beguiled me. Certainly *outstanding* acting by all involved, Miranda Richardson above the rest. Lots of little details, the sockery (tucking odd bits into their pants...sexual??), the line about the four shirts for a lesser man, Spider's crazy cribbing, the fractured glass window web, the monolithic gasworks like an alien overlord...all of these little details make for a compelling, albeit dark, vision.
That being said, I thought the original buzz on this film was that it was far too harrowing for most folks. I don't think that is the case...there's very little overt violence. However, one slaying that does apparently take place could be controversial. It was for me. In listening to the Cronenberg voice-over during that scene I think he underestimates the amount of senseless violence that many members of his audience have seen. It is not until the next "family" meal that I fully comprehended the violent severing from reality. A well-placed blow.
We do get plenty of sex and confusion, but then again sex is confusion! I've not seen "The Bad Seed" but that may be in the same vein as this film, where we realize ultimately that the child himself really is the source of "horror" here, as opposed to a monstrous mother or father or Mrs. Bates etc...
Cronenberg likes to blur boundaries between internal and external "realities" and decidedly untidy ones at that. This may not insert a VHS in your gut, but it did a nice job of adding some cobwebs to my mind.
7/10
what I consider ***SPOILERS*** follow .....
I think Cronenberg does a fine job working against the Hollywood archetype of such a psychodrama (or even psychosis-o-drama). The unravelling of Spider's story aligns us with him. Having a Cuckoo's Nest caretaker/warden at the very onset sets the wheels in motion.
The Hollywood diagnosis would be that the parents are to blame for the child's detachment or mental disease. Cronenberg plays with perception (both Spider's and thus the audience's). This will bother some, an untrustworthy narrator always does.
Where that perception hits its breaking point will range from viewer to viewer, but gradually we realize that Spider has spun much of what we have seen out of thin air. He begins to have trouble fitting all of the puzzle pieces in place, and thus betrays himself.
In reflecting back now, there does seem to be a very solid Freudian view to much of the action, but during my watching of the film, it never felt so heavy-handed to me.
Perhaps it was the use of Spider's fly-on-the-wall presence that beguiled me. Certainly *outstanding* acting by all involved, Miranda Richardson above the rest. Lots of little details, the sockery (tucking odd bits into their pants...sexual??), the line about the four shirts for a lesser man, Spider's crazy cribbing, the fractured glass window web, the monolithic gasworks like an alien overlord...all of these little details make for a compelling, albeit dark, vision.
That being said, I thought the original buzz on this film was that it was far too harrowing for most folks. I don't think that is the case...there's very little overt violence. However, one slaying that does apparently take place could be controversial. It was for me. In listening to the Cronenberg voice-over during that scene I think he underestimates the amount of senseless violence that many members of his audience have seen. It is not until the next "family" meal that I fully comprehended the violent severing from reality. A well-placed blow.
We do get plenty of sex and confusion, but then again sex is confusion! I've not seen "The Bad Seed" but that may be in the same vein as this film, where we realize ultimately that the child himself really is the source of "horror" here, as opposed to a monstrous mother or father or Mrs. Bates etc...
Cronenberg likes to blur boundaries between internal and external "realities" and decidedly untidy ones at that. This may not insert a VHS in your gut, but it did a nice job of adding some cobwebs to my mind.
7/10