(Small spoilers throughout the entire review)
David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers is a thriller that makes the blood chill, but in a completely different way than his previous 'The Fly'. Dead Ringers is an emotionally and psychologically devastating film focusing on the exclusiveness of twins and their (supposable) telepathic interaction skills. Master actor Jeremy Irons stars in a double-role as Beverley and Elliot Mantle. At age nine, they're intelligent kids (the part where they ask the bitchy neighbor girl to have experimental sex with the both of them is great) and they grow to be brilliant med school students. In a further life-stadium, they're brilliant gynecologists with an own clinic. Even though nobody can tell the difference between them physically, the two brothers have a very different personality. Elliot is the dominant, self-confident one while Beverley is the shy one who wouldn't even meet girls if it weren't for Elliot passing his ex-girlfriends to him. But then Beverley falls deeply in love with an actress who came to the clinic with gynecologic problems. After the painful mix-ups between the two brothers (Dead Ringers makes no problem out of exploiting the 'twin-brothers-share-the-same-girlfriends' topic) they form a steady couple, but when the actress hands over some of her showbiz's habits like drugs and kinky sex to Beverley, this seems to unleash mental madness that eventually has its impact on both brothers.
Dead Ringers is slow, stone cold and driven by depression and despair. In his typical and brilliant style, David Cronenberg tells the story without any form of emotion or sympathy for the brothers. His directorial approach is detached and it sometimes feels like he's shooting an ordinary scientific documentary. That certainly isn't a bad comment, though. In an unexplainable way, the cold and objective viewpoint is what makes this film so terrifying. Along with the outstanding performance by Irons, that is. He really succeeds in making both of his characters go through a lethal downward spiral of insanity. Dead Ringers is one of those films almost impossible to judge. Half of the time what you see are brilliant and half of the time you're too confused by it, but, in general, it's far too compelling and you refuse to give up understanding what the characters go through. This is psychological terror in its purest form!
David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers is a thriller that makes the blood chill, but in a completely different way than his previous 'The Fly'. Dead Ringers is an emotionally and psychologically devastating film focusing on the exclusiveness of twins and their (supposable) telepathic interaction skills. Master actor Jeremy Irons stars in a double-role as Beverley and Elliot Mantle. At age nine, they're intelligent kids (the part where they ask the bitchy neighbor girl to have experimental sex with the both of them is great) and they grow to be brilliant med school students. In a further life-stadium, they're brilliant gynecologists with an own clinic. Even though nobody can tell the difference between them physically, the two brothers have a very different personality. Elliot is the dominant, self-confident one while Beverley is the shy one who wouldn't even meet girls if it weren't for Elliot passing his ex-girlfriends to him. But then Beverley falls deeply in love with an actress who came to the clinic with gynecologic problems. After the painful mix-ups between the two brothers (Dead Ringers makes no problem out of exploiting the 'twin-brothers-share-the-same-girlfriends' topic) they form a steady couple, but when the actress hands over some of her showbiz's habits like drugs and kinky sex to Beverley, this seems to unleash mental madness that eventually has its impact on both brothers.
Dead Ringers is slow, stone cold and driven by depression and despair. In his typical and brilliant style, David Cronenberg tells the story without any form of emotion or sympathy for the brothers. His directorial approach is detached and it sometimes feels like he's shooting an ordinary scientific documentary. That certainly isn't a bad comment, though. In an unexplainable way, the cold and objective viewpoint is what makes this film so terrifying. Along with the outstanding performance by Irons, that is. He really succeeds in making both of his characters go through a lethal downward spiral of insanity. Dead Ringers is one of those films almost impossible to judge. Half of the time what you see are brilliant and half of the time you're too confused by it, but, in general, it's far too compelling and you refuse to give up understanding what the characters go through. This is psychological terror in its purest form!