Spider
Originally Written: March 2003
The best moviewatching experiences- I think- happen when a film shows you something you’ve never seen before (or something you’ve seen before in a new way). “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings,” “City of God,” “Adaptation,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Crow,” Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Stalker,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Dark City,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Fantasia/2000” and it’s 1940 predecessor, and Tarkovsky’s “Andrei Rublev”- the first times seeing these films were such experiences for me. You’ll always remember these experiences, as these will become the benchmarks for which you’ll measure every other to, regardless of how well they “work” for you.
David Cronenberg’s “Spider” was one such experience for me. It’s a bit too languid in pace- even at 98 minutes- to achieve true cinematic greatness, but Cronenberg (“eXistenZ,” “Crash”) does achieve a sort of storytelling brilliance. Based on the novel by Patrick McGrath (who also wrote the sparse, effective, though not completely devoid of blatent literary symbolism, screenplay), “Spider” thrusts you into the troubled mind of Dennis “Spider” Cleg- who’s just been released from a mental institution after 20 years- and leaves you there even after the end credits start to roll. But don’t mistake this for the Oscar-winning “A Beautiful Mind”- with it’s triumph-of-the-human-spirit ending- or even “Memento,” where the main character’s disjointed mental state is played for nifty cinematic effect. Cronenberg’s delicately-crafted and artful drama reminds us of the troubled minds with no one to help- the ones so far gone it’s unlikely they can ever come back.
Similar to Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” (whose Oscar wins make it more a “must-see” than ever), which made you experience every moment of it’s protagonist’s dispairing journey through his eyes, and even “A Beautiful Mind,” Cronenberg forces us to experience Spider’s psychological turmoil from the inside, only unlike Adrien Brody’s Wladyslaw Szpilman and Russell Crowe’s John Nash, there will be no repreive or moment of peace for Cleg. The best he can hope for is some inkling of quiet as he tries to piece together the pivotal moment of his life, how- when he was ten- his loving mother (a touching Miranda Richardson) and distant father (an indelible Gabriel Byrne) were separated by lust and murder, centered around his father’s affair with a local hooker (also Richardson, chillingly effective in her duel role).
The more we discover in Spider’s head about these memories, the less we can trust them. How much of it does he remember as it happened? How much is guilt-ridden self-rationalization? How much of it is personal revisionism to hide the truth? Spider can’t say, and Cronenberg won’t say. Any clues we’re given are either abstract visual representations (beautifully realized by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky) or barely intelligible bits and pieces of dialogue. You see, Spider only speaks in occasionally audible mumbles of words, and when he writes in his journal, it’s pure gibberish. Spider’s psyche is one tough nut to crack; it can’t be summed up in easy exposition (as in “Psycho”) or psychobabble observations (as in “Mind”), and that’s the only way it could work. “Spider” presents his psychological turmoil as precisely that, and we sympathize. Somehow, we’re able to sympathize with this troubled mind, in my case, more so than the beautiful mind of John Nash.
In a remarkable bit of method acting, Ralph Fiennes gives his finest performance since “Schindler’s List” as Cleg, with haunted eyes, stark body motion, rough hair, and a general sense of melancholy that’s palpable. It’s the most haunting and heartbreaking performance you’re likely to see this year. The same might also be said for Howard Shore’s artful and sparse score (written in between “Lord of the Rings” scores for long-time collaborator Cronenberg), beautifully performed by Kronos Quartet (also on display on soundtracks for “Heat” and “Requiem for a Dream”).
Unfortunately, not an Oscar will be in the cards come next February for Cronenberg, Fiennes, Shore, or Richardson. The film had a qualifying run for THIS year’s Oscars in LA in late December, making it ineligible for next year’s preceedings. It’s alright- merely seeing “Spider,” the act of watching “Spider,” is reward enough for moviegoers.
