Mental illness, as depicted in film, is usually shown from an outside perspective or glossed over and sentimentalized. This is not the case in David Cronenberg's new film "Spider," where the audience is given a window into the mind of a schizophrenic. Cronenberg is a master of sexual perversion and subversive horror; now he has turned his eye to madness. It is a quiet film, seemingly small in scope because not much "happens," however it covers the large scope of one man's entangled mind.

When we first meet the main character, Dennis Cleg (nicknamed "Spider" because of his obsession with webs), he is being transferred from an asylum to a halfway house. The house is run by Mrs. Wilkinson (Lynn Redgrave), who is seen as a tyrant by the occupants. Spider (Ralph Fiennes) is almost completely out of touch with the world outside his mind. He is incapable of holding a conversation, constantly mumbles incoherently to himself. He also scribbles notes into a book that would be incoherent if you could actually read them.

When Spider is walking outside at night and looks in on a family sitting down to dinner; we quickly learn that he is watching his own childhood. Spider is rehashing his childhood in order to unlock a mystery about himself. He can put himself alongside his father (Gabriel Byrne), his mother (Miranda Richardson), or his child as an observer. We see his father have an affair, kill his mother, and shack up with a whore who becomes a surrogate mom. We realize, as characters change indentities, that Spider's retelling is not reliable. Eventually we learn the truth of why Spider was sent away, apart from being sick. Spider finally unlocks the secret that he's been hiding from himself.

This is a daring role for Fiennes, he has virtually no dialogue but relies on slight gestures and raw emotion. It is a devastating, subdued performance. Byrne and Richardson are both terrific as the parents. They each play their roles how Spider remembers them and what they probably were really like, as caricatures and characters.

This is not "A Beautiful Mind" where the character uses love to conquer his illness...please. It is more along the lines of "Memento," in which we learn that the narraror is completely unreliable. Even if it isn't completely true to schizophrenia, it makes us understand it better because we go through what the character goes through, we put the pieces of the puzzle together as he does. Watching the film, pure logic and reason are gone. There is no dramatic irony or condescension, we are as clueless as he is.

Cronenberg's Spider
Over the weekend, I saw David Cronenberg's new Film Spider with Tbone, who wrote a review. One thing I'd like to add to his review, is that Miranda Richardson turned in several exceptionally noteworthy performances, as both Mother and Stepmother. The f...
Nedward on March 19, 2003 12:21 PM