David Cronenberg’s Spider
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras: B - Film: B-
Canada’s premiere filmmaker David Cronenberg returns with Spider,
a 2002 tale of a schizophrenic man (Ralph Fiennes, in a fine performance) who
takes the step from a mental institute to a halfway house to possibly have a
more normal life. The location of the
new home is, unfortunately, in the neighborhood in which he grew up, and this
brings back repressed memories of his childhood.
It should be noted that unlike The Who’s Rock Opera Tommy
and the 1975 Ken Russell film that adapts it, Spider (Fiennes) does not
suddenly become when his father and mistress kill his mother. As a matter of fact, we have to question the
validity of every single perception he has.
Unlike Russell Crowe in Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind (2001),
Fiennes Spider has no hidden genius in which to battle his inner demons. His story is sadly the more typical story of
those still struggling with one of the greatest, most devastating, unconquered
mental illnesses of all time.
Cronenberg takes his time to tell this story the long way, to make the
audience have a stronger idea of what a trap this and all mental illnesses are,
and to get the details correct.
Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Lynn Redgrave and the
rest of the fine cast put together one of Cronenberg’s most subtle, more
refined films yet. The screenplay by
Patrick McGrath, from his book, begins to scratch the surface of this nightmare
in a way A Beautiful Mind simply could not. The problem is that the film overall still feels limited, because
it is in a “catch 22” situation. It
wants to get the audience to experience the virtual reality of the illness, but
to consistently do this; it has to limit itself as a film. It cannot seek answers, explore its subject
matter further without breaking that spell, and the very socio-economic
circumstances of the title character further limit this. Spider will not be able to attend the
college of his choice, as the schizophrenic in A Beautiful Mind does, he
is trapped on top of trapped, and that makes this a sad story that deserves to
be reckoned with.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is not bad, but
softer than one would expect a transfer of a brand new film to be. This seems to keep happening with Sony
Pictures Classics product, even the less difficult to transfer. It may have been mastered in high
definition, but something subtle is happening to some such transfers. As with Columbia-TriStar’s DVD of Martha
Coolidge’s 1985 hoot Real Genius, the source is obviously good, but not
all of the higher quality of the print makes it to the DVD. Cronenberg’s longtime cinematographer Peter
Suschitzky, A.S.C., B.S.C., continues to deliver the memorable camerawork that
have marked Cronenberg as visually unique.
A SuperBit DVD edition may be the only way this will ever capture his
work on the format, but it still plays back well enough to enjoy.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 mix fares better, with its
unique sound design meant to punctuate the split mind of Spider. The music by Howard Shore (The Silence of
the Lambs) is also on target constantly for the story, enhancing the
experience Spider goes through more deeply.
Extras include an insightful commentary by Cronenberg, the original
trailer (along with a few other Sony film trailers), filmographies, and three
featurettes that equal around an hours’ worth of extra material. They deal with how the project surfaced (In
The Beginning: How SPIDER Came To Be), the production (Weaving the Web:
The Making of SPIDER), and Caught in SPIDERS Web: The Cast. They will especially help those who have
problems following the film, but should not be watched before first viewing it.
This is a nice change of pace of Cronenberg, who usually
is doing something more controversial and outrageous, but Spider offers
one of the best looks yet at mental illness and will hold up for many years to
come.
- Nicholas Sheffo
