¨There's a poem I read
in which a rat becomes the unit of currency.¨
Oh David
Cronenberg what have thy done? Despite making some great films in the last few
years (such as A History of Violence and Eastern Promises) Cronenberg has
directed what is in my opinion the worst film of 2012. Cosmopolis is 100
minutes of complete torture, I did not enjoy the experience one bit and was
hoping the pace of the film would pick up or that there would be some cool pay
off at the end, but neither of those things happened. I can honestly tell you
that I considered walking out on this film so many times, but for some reason I
decided to stay with it. This is a film I will not be revisiting ever, although
I know that in order to understand it completely several viewings need to take
place because it is based on a philosophical novel written by Don DeLillo that
is hard to follow. The film is very slow paced as you follow the main character
for almost the entire film inside his limo talking to several different
characters that jump in and out of his vehicle. The dialogues are really
profound and pretentious as everything they are talking about serves as a sort
of metaphor or symbolism on capitalism. If to understand the dialogues in the
novel you need to read them over and over again, imagine how much more
difficult it is to understand everything that Cronenberg is trying to throw at
you in these dialogues where you can´t pause and go back to make sure you
listened and interpreted things correctly. The entire film seems to be
anti-capitalistic or at least a form of protest against cyber-capitalism and
economics in general. The movie does seem to share some parallels with the
Occupy Wall Street movement that took place. I don´t see how anyone other than
those people who have read the novel will understand everything that is going
on here. I am not even sure if Cronenberg understood everything that DeLillo
was really trying to say in the novel, or if he simply had a different
interpretation of things. The film is heavily pretentious and it was just a
torturous experience for me, which is too bad because I really enjoyed some of
his previous work (especially his films with Viggo Mortensen).
The film
centers on Erick Packer (Robert Pattinson) a young billionaire living in
Manhattan who decides to get on his limo and drive across town to get a
haircut. Despite being warned by his security official, Torval (Kevin Durand),
that the President is in the city and that the streets are completely jammed by
traffic and protestors, he insists on taking the limo and getting his haircut.
Therefore he spends almost the entire day in his limo, only getting off sporadically
to grab a bite to eat or talk to his wife, Elise (Sarah Gadon) whom he
encounters on several occasions during the day. While he is in the limo he´s
always talking to someone who he happens to come across, some who work for him
and seem to be his advisors, while others some sort of acquaintance like Didi
(Juliette Binoche). He even has a doctor get in the limo and do his daily
routine medical checkup (including a prostate exam) on him while talking
economics with a colleague. Erick encounters all sorts of people and even an
angry mob that is protesting in the streets (reminiscent to the Occupy Wall
Street movement), but it is something he´s willing to do in order to get his
haircut. Torval even mentions to him that someone is threatening his life, but
Erick continues to move on. The entire drama plays out as a sort of metaphor on
economics and capitalism, but the dialogues are really hard to follow as there
are so many symbolisms and metaphors which I found very heavy handed and
philosophical.
Near the end
of the film there is a heavy dialogue scene between Pattinson´s character and
Paul Giamatti´s that I was hoping would pay off for all the effort I put into
it by sticking with it, but not even the dependable Paul Giamatti saved this
film. I know some people liked this film, and I’m guessing because they
probably had read the novel or are into all these philosophical and economical
debates that Cronenberg is trying to raise, but I really had a hard time
understanding everything that was going on. I wasn’t a big fan of Cronenberg´s
latest film, A Dangerous Method, but that film is a masterpiece compared with
Cosmopolis. I really disliked this movie and wasn’t entertained with any of the
characters or the dialogues they were having. I couldn’t connect with this film
in the same way other people who enjoyed this might have. I would much rather
see Pattinson in Twilight again than watch this film; that is how much I hated
this film. I hope Cronenberg returns to his A History of Violence days instead
of making these pretentious philosophical movies that seem not to answer any
questions in particular. Or maybe I just didn’t get it, but I am not willing to
sit through a second viewing of this film and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone
either.
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