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| Spider
Year: 2002
Classification: Mystery / Suspense
Directed:
- David Cronenberg
Actors/Actresses:
- Ralph Fiennes
- Miranda Richardson
- Gabriel Byrne
Itsy bitsy Spider
Spider marks a triumphant return to form for director David Cronenberg after the lightweight and screwball eXistenZ. Like much of his most heartfelt work - The Dead Zone, The Fly and Dead Ringers to name a few - Spider is a tragic tale of an alienated and afflicted man. We first meet Spider - beautifully played by Ralph Fiennes - as he takes up residence in a halfway house, a dismal limbo between institution and the real world. One look at him and we know in our bones he will never take that next step. He is a man without a future and whos present is overwhelmed by his past. What unfolds is a story of memory and madness as seen subjectively through the eyes of a shattered personality. Cronenberg's direction is brilliantly assured and deceptively economical. And as good as Fiennes is, and he is good, its Miranda Richardson who delivers the films most impressive performance. She will no doubt be overlooked but certainly deserves a Best Supporting Actress nomination. David Cronenberg's Spider is a small, sad and beautiful film and one of the best of 2003.
Oedipus in London
The creepy psychological thriller, "Spider," is difficult and challenging even for a David Cronenberg film. It is also immensely rewarding.
The film starts off slowly, but like the spider of the title, it spins a web that draws us into the center of its world and never lets us out. Ralph Fiennes delivers a bravura performance in the largely nonverbal role of a mentally disturbed man who, upon his discharge from an asylum, takes up residence in a drab halfway house in London. As Fiennes shuffles, mumbles and twitches his way about the house and around the neighborhood, a fascinating Oedipal drama emerges. Throughout the course of the story, Spider, the adult, begins to intrude more and more into the past as he watches unobserved the events he believes occurred in his childhood. As a boy, he obviously adored and worshiped his mother (Miranda Richardson), so much so that, as a grownup, he begins to imagine himself present at events that depict his father's supposed infidelities (and worse), clearly hoping that, by doing this, Spider can eliminate his father either as a rival or, at best, as an agent of further defilement. In order to continue seeing his mother as sacred, the young Spider finds a unique, but ultimately fatal method of "objectifying" her and the feelings he has for her (a method that fits perfectly into the old Madonna syndrome). It is an act that will have fatal consequences for the family unit.
What makes all this so absorbing is the way in which Cronenberg and scenarist Patrick McGrath delve into the subconscious madness of the main character. For large stretches of the film we literally have no idea if what we are seeing in the past actually happened or whether it is all the product of a deeply disturbed mind. Only towards the end do all the pieces fall into place, revealing the "truth" beneath the surface of this highly disturbing tale. "Spider" is a thriller in the richest sense of the term because it builds its suspense gradually and subtly, fully aware that the greatest threats come from our own distorted views of reality. Against such madness, how can any of us be safe?
Cronenberg has provided a somber, stark environment in which to unfold his drama. The drab colors, sterile settings, somber music and pervasive spider imagery all contribute to the foreboding atmosphere of the piece. As Spider, Fiennes is a revelation, conveying the disturbed nature of the character through indirection and understatement, never going over the top in his portrayal of a truly insane man, making him all the more convincing and chilling. Miranda Richardson (in a triple role), Gabriel Byrne, Lynn Redgrave, John Neville and young Bradley Hall all contribute mightily to the success of the work.
My biggest fear is that many people will tune out this film early on because of its admittedly slow pacing in the first half. If they do, I am sorry to say they will have missed one of the most intriguing and gripping movies to be released
Haunting
After sitting on my self for well over a couple of months I decided to give this movie a try. My expectations weren't very high and I expected something on par with Willard.<BR> From the very beginning I was captivated with Ralph Fiennes' performance and he really communicated the feelings of being totally drawn in on himself.<BR> The unfolding of the story was depicted in such a way that we experience the confusion and emotional turmoil of the main character. <BR> While I've never been a big fan of Freud, the movie does make use of Freud's Oedipal Complex theory and models Spider's entire relationship with his parents is based on it. Spider's idealization of his mother made him incapable of seeing her negative qualities. While his mother did make efforts to be a "good mum" she also shared her husbands wrecklessness and drinking problem. In order to displace his mothers undeniable neglect he displaces her, in his mind, with a bar fly who flashes her breast at him at the local pub.<BR> In reality Spider's father isn't too far removed from his mother. A man who makes efforts to be a good father but doesn't do much to eliminate his vices, however, Spider staying true to Oedipal victimhood takes a hostile view of his father and ignores the good qualities and demonizes his father.<BR> While it is clear that Spider's memories are often twisted and others are mere imagination that he uses to make sense of what's going on around him, we can still say with relative certainty that his parents were too selfish in their drinking and partying to have any idea what their actions were having on their son.<BR> The truly sad part of the movie is that Spider is never willing to look the truth straight in the face and the only time he admits to himself that the drunken woman really was his mother is when he kills her. So he selectively chooses to see the truth only when he is at fault. This partial look at the reality of his life is what keeps him locked in his past.
A truly sad movie and one I will not soon forget.
Buy Spider at Amazon.com
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