Spider (2003)
"The movie is a projection of Spider's
mind..." - "Spider" scripter Patrick McGrath
"Spider" is a really wonderful film
to look at. Director David Cronenberg creates moody
and troubling atmospherics with just the right sets
and the right locales. His film is always interesting
to look at. Unfortunately he's got a story that is
paper-thin and would seemingly take only one page
to write it out. There's almost nothing here.
"Spider" is the nickname given to
Ralph Fiennes character when he is a boy, as played
by Bradley Hall, because he is intrigued by a story
about a mother spider who has her babies and then
dies. Boy Spider also enjoys taking bits of used rope,
string and twine and creating spider-web like sculptures
about his room. Unlike the Marvel hero, he doesn't
become a crime-fighter but instead a psychotic.
Cronenberg, using a script by Patrick
McGrath that he based on his own novel, takes forever
in introducing us to the adult Spider. As played by
Fiennes, the character is nearly silent, inarticulate,
and obviously mentally disturbed. Spider heads to
a halfway house run by the snooty Lynn Redgrave and
it isn't long before we hear through nicely written
exposition that he is just out of an asylum.
Spider begins to haunt his old childhood
stomping grounds and as he does, his story unfolds
before us in flashback. But Cronenberg and McGrath
come up with a really clever way to tell the story.
Rather than simple straightforward flashback, the
story is told as if the adult Spider were silent witness
to the events. He looks in windows and often stands
right in the room while the flashback plays out. He
is like a ghost haunting his own past. The effect
is perfection.
Fiennes is really excellent in this
role. He brings us a character that is basically a
shell of a man yet still makes us intrigued and interested
in his story. He is supported by an excellent cast
including Redgrave, who does her best work in ages
here, Gabriel Byrne, and Miranda Richardson, who has
the role of her career so far. Likewise, the young
Hall performs quite brilliantly and the acting in
the film can adequately be described as top-notch!
But it is Cronenberg's visual style
that really makes the film worth watching. Production
Designer Andrew Sanders, working with a crew that
provides perfectly creepy and ramshackle locales,
really does wonders here. The film just looks amazing.
The sets, the props, the locations are by far the
true stars of the film and Cronenberg takes loving
care to make them so.
Sadly, however, "Spider" hinges
on a revelatory moment that comes late in the film
and Cronenberg has deflated the plot so that it has
no tension and no surprise. We see what is truly going
on with Spider long before the filmmaker seems to
intend us to. When it does come, it does not surprise
or provoke thought. It simply exists. I don't think
much could be done to help the film become anything
else as we don't really want a eye-widening, mouth-gaping
finale here. Still, when all is said and done, "Spider"
seems to lay a sack of eggs at the end. It worth seeing
for its visual palette but its resolution leaves one
believing that the story is far better suited for
the novel from whence it came.
Notes:
The novel (also called "Spider,"
published in 1990) was set in the 50's with the childhood
flashbacks taking place in the 30's. Cronenberg has
stated that he intended the film to take place in
the 80's and flashback to the 60's but the time- specifics
about the film barely exist. Cronenberg has created
a film that is as easy to accept as a modern-day piece
as it a period piece from 50 years ago.
Exteriors were filmed in London
and interiors in Toronto.
A note to American audiences: Byrne,
playing spider's father, goes to his "allotment,"
a garden with a shack that is not directly beside
the family's yard. I am not sure exactly what an "allotment"
is but, having heard the term used on BBC-TV's "Eastenders,"
presume it is an allotment of land set aside for residents
of an urban area to have a garden and grow their own
vegetables.
In the original novel, Spider's
story was revealed as he wrote it in his notebook.
Nepotism factor: Costume designer
is Denise Cronenberg. She has worked on six films
with
McGrath has another novel, "Asylum"
in development with Miranda Richardson also attached.
There have been several other films
with the title "The Spider" but few without the common
article preceding it.
Viewed in Austin in April 2003 at
a press sneak.
