Spider

Rating:
Summary: Spider pulls you into it's web.
Review: Spider is a fantastic film. Although slow moving, it's showcases some superb acting and Cronenburg's grittiness, while keeping you filled with anticipation and curiosity. Ralph Fiennes, in his best performance to date plays Spider a mumbling schizophrenic who can be seen picking up random bits of trash or putting his hands down his pants to pull out a sock where he keeps his note. Spider recalls his past, particularly the relationship between his mother (played brilliantly by Miranda Richardson - who plays multiple roles in the film) and his father (played by Gabriel Byrne) while he was a small boy. Young spider is played by Bradley Hall a boy who's trying to deal with the confusing world around him. It's a remarkable performance for this young actor's film debut. The film's quite thought-provoking and ends up playing out like a mystery, to see how a young boy became the Spider he is today.

Rating:
Summary: A three for effort.
Review: I wasn't sure what to make of Spider before I saw it, and, frankly, I feel the same way afterwards. Spider is an attempt to bring the audience into the mind of a mentally disturbed man, Spider, who has just been released--prematurely it would seem--from a mental institution, and finds himself drifting about between a halfway house and the familiar places from his childhood. Ralph Fiennes' nuanced, if mumbly, performance as Spider interested me, but the slow, langorous pace was difficult to deal with. We begin witnessing Spider's childhood and the events that may, or may not, have precipitated his madness.

And he is mad, scribbling nonsense hieroglyphics in a tattered notebook, mumbling about this or that, assembling a jigsaw puzzle, and then trashing it, with strange intensity, wearing eight or nine shirts simultaneously, wrapping old newspaper and twine around his torso--you get the picture.

But the clever conceit of Spider is trying to understand what is true, and what is not, about Spider's childhood recollections. Did witnessing a violent event warp his mind? Or was it a gas leak from the stove? Or was it guilt over an extraordinary crime? Was it the prostitute who flashes her breast at the quiet, friendless little boy? Or was he just born that way? The truth slowly--and I mean slowly--unravels, until we realize the depths of Spider's schizophrenia, and perhaps understand the disease just a little more than when the movie started--what seemed like hours and hours and hours ago.

This is a brave attempt at insight, and it succeeds on some levels. Certainly, it seems driven by artistic vision, not box office success, and that, alone, is about as much nobility as we expect from film. So watch it, for the gems it presents; understand that it isn't perfect; enjoy the rich cinematography, too.

Rating:
Summary: great film, excellent DVD
Review: Though this movie is rated R, as a fact is a movie suitable for all, I mean this is a David Cronenberg movie and a lot of people are scared simply by knowing he is directing; though Cronenberg continues to explore the dangers inside of the human mind, Spider is the more sober film ever shot by the canadian filmmaker. The film has a great cast: Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson and Gabriel Byrne aren't big stars but are great actors indeed. It's really strange that this movie - presented at Cannes last year - didn't gathered awards: directing, cinematography, screenplay, acting are all first class here: everything contributes creating the best cinematic represenation of schizofrenia ever.
The DVD is very good. The video track makes justice to the moving image while the audio track - though this isn't a film you can expect a lot of surround work - offers clear dialogues and it's involving with the essential Howard Shore music. The extras are interesting, especially the commentary by Cronenberg. Overall film and DVD worth buying, especially if you aren't a Cronenberg fan this could be the right point to start exploring the great work of this artist.

Rating:
Summary: An acting master class.
Review: This is not the sort of movie I would normally see but I'm glad I did otherwise I would have missed Ralph Fiennes remarkable performance as a very disturbed personality, Spider Cleg..

It is watching Fiennes that really made the movie come alive for me. He presents the schizophrenic character so perfectly, facial expressions, body language, mannerisms, the entire persona is so believable even though he says very little direct dialogue. His first appearance, soon after the start, sets the scene, a train arrives at a London terminal, the passengers stream past the camera until the platform is empty and then Spider steps down from the carriage, immediately you sense that here is a person who is different and you're hooked. I would suggest that this movie is recommended viewing for every acting/drama class in the country.

Director Cronenberg has turned out a fascinating movie with lots of little subtleties that could easily be missed on the first viewing.

Rating:
Summary: Confused
Review: I got crunched for time and was not able to view the special features of the DVD where the movie was explained. Both my wife & I did not understand what happened. While I understand the critical embrace that many give the film, a movie that must be explained to be understood is not successful.

It's always difficult to have a protagonist who is mentally ill. A story like Spider would do better where there are characters like in "A Beautiful Mind" or "Iris" through whom the audience gains stability in understanding the material. Instead, while there is a full exploration of the character by Ralph Fiennes' excellent job of acting, we didn't understand whether he really murdered his mother or whether his father had. Miranda Richardson's performance is incredible. I really had no clue that Mrs. Cleg and Yvonne the bargirl were played by the same person. They seemed to be two completely separate individuals to me. Young Bradley Hall seemed the sanest of all the characters to me, enduring quite a bit from his father played by Gabriel Byrne. Lynn Redgrave did a great job as Mrs. Wilkinson, but I had no clue why Yvonne suddenly was seen as Mrs. Wilkinson.

The one aspect of the film that I did appreciate was the cinematography. This film is a thousand pictures, beautifully and starkly filmed.

One reviewer said that if you're confused, you shouldn't review this movie. For me, a film should be clear if it's successfully done. This one wasn't. The fault is in poor direction and confusing editing. Taxi!

Rating:
Summary: HUH????
Review: hey, Lord knows nobody loves Ralph Fiennes more than me, and his acting in this movie was great. But what the heck was w/ all the flashbacks? I was seriously lost. One minute he's in a bar the next he's in a field...??????
The only part i really liked was the part where the nasty woman who runs the half house is frisking Spider for her keys and she can't find them, so she gets all mad & leaves and the keys are in the door. (ironic humor)

Rating:
Summary: Great Plot,Excellent Movie
Review: The movis is about a man named Spider(Ralph Fiennes) who is released from a mental hospital and goes to a halfway house
run by the dreaded Mrs.Ilkenson.Slowly but surely Spider begins to remember a traged from his past due to something between his
father and mother and a prostitute named Hilda.But as he continues to remember he finds out it wasn't what he thought happened.A+ is my review

Rating:
Summary: QUITE POSSIBLY, CRONENBERG'S BEST FILM
Review: There are some very fine reviews here. But I had to chime in.

WARNING: Some of the reviewers have given away the secrets and plot twists to this amazing pyschological thriller. BE CAREFUL or this may ruin your viewing experience. One of the joys of this film for me was the revelation of themes and the mystery of Spider's delusional mind. Having heard very little about this film even after hearing Cronenberg talk on NPR, this film took me by complete surprise. The ending absolutely fooled me and the method Cronenberg uses to reveal Spider's delusion is brilliant. I still did not know about this device until the credits were rolling. I felt naive because it all seemed so obvious. This is what I love about film. Being duped. Thanks, Cronenberg! (I hope I haven't given anything away.)

As stated before, this is a bleak mood piece about a schizophrenic ghost of a man who is released from an asylum. Plagued by visions of his childhood, he slowly reenacts the apparent cause of his insanity. It's a very barren and minimalist piece of film making that is not for everyone. The performances are flawless. The pallette is dark and drab. The pacing is slow. The images are stark and brooding. The image of Spider scrawling in his mad hieroglyphic diary with smoke stained hands against a dirty wall framed in heavy shadow left me breathless. It's a scene of isolated madness like no other.

I have never considered myself a big fan of Cronenberg. I've always loved THE FLY. NAKED LUNCH left me confused. The William Burroughs novel of the same name is stream of consciousness nightmare vision and almost impossible to translate into film. Very brave of Cronenberg to try. DEAD RINGERS was disturbingly delicious. But SPIDER may be Cronenberg's best film. If he were to make another film as stunning as this one I just might become one of his biggest fans.

This film is for adults who like mystery, themes of madness, and smart mood pieces. Teenagers or others looking for a standard horror movie may want to look elsewhere.

WATCHING THE CONCLUSION I FELT AS IF I HAD WITNESSED SOMETHING HITCHCOCK WOULD HAVE KILLED TO DIRECT, HAD HE STILL BEEN ALIVE. THIS FILM MAY EVEN SURPASS ANYTHING OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE THE MASTER MAY HAVE DIRECTED. BRAVO, CRONENBERG! CHEERS, TO RALPH AND MIRANDA!

HITCH WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting camera angles that lead to little action
Review: This is possibly the most boring film I have ever seen. I spent the first twenty minutes asking myself - why all the interesting camera angles leading to nondecript performances? It is no fault of the actors that this film goes nowhere. I could tell the ending with the first entrance of the lead character. Save for an extraordinary performance by Miranda Richardson, the film is dull and boring. The director has chosen great locations and wonderful camera angles that set us up for what could be deeply delving character moments. Instead, we get nothing of interest after the interesting camera angles; leading me to think that he can set up interest leading into a scene, but has no idea how to creat drama through the actions of the characters. It seems as if the director knows nothing about acting. Miranda Richardson is amazing as Spiders mother, and astonishingly great as the lower class woman Spiders father ends up with. She also does an amazing turn as the woman who runs the halfway house, played beautifully by Lynn Redgrave for the bulk of the movie. Unfortunately, poor Ralph Fiennes has nothing to do but list the facts of what is going on in the movie. His lines are dreadful, and give us nothing. His behavior is quite good, but all is lost when he has to say those redundant lines. It truly look as if the director knows nothing about acting, or how the sum total of the characters actions lead us into the life of teh character. All of the sensational camera angles seem to be only for the sake of being interesting and lead nowheer once the story of each scene begins.

Rating:
Summary: A disturbing and fascinating journey into mental illness
Review: This movie is a strange mood piece with a tremendous performance by Ralph Fiennes as a man who's been released from a mental institution and has returned to the London neighborhood where he grew up. The nature of his illness is deliberately unclear. We simply watch as familiar surroundings trigger disturbing memories of his boyhood, and through them we slowly piece together his story.

The mood is set by a long, long tracking shot as the movie begins, as passengers disembark from a train in a large London terminal. The camera seems to be searching through this throng for someone in particular, and after what seems like an eternity, Fiennes as Spider emerges painfully and awkwardly onto the platform with a beat-up suitcase. And we are plunged from a scene of everyday activity into his world, which is far, far removed from the everyday and ordinary.

There's a twilight-zone kind of ambiance in the movie, as the camera shows us interiors and exteriors that are typically empty of furnishings and people. Street scenes, for instance, have no passing traffic, no pedestrians, not even cars parked at curbs. The lighting is often like stage lighting, coming from unexpected sources and providing an eerie flatness. The soundtrack alternates between strange rumbling noises, a small group of strings experimenting with mournful dissonance, and a lovely old-fashioned ballad that Spider remembers from childhood.

The supporting actors are wonderful, as they waver in our perception between what their characters really are and how they appear to Spider. Miranda Richardson has the task of playing three different characters, each as Spider sees them. Gabriel Byrne and Lynne Redgrave in brief scenes give richly nuanced performances. As with many indie movies, the commentary and other features on the DVD provide further interesting insights.

This is not a movie for an audience looking for entertainment. It is a psychological study and something of a mystery, as we make what sense we can of what the movie slowly reveals of its central character. I recommend it to anyone fascinated by the darker sides of the human psyche, the puzzle of mental illness, and the strange ways that the everyday world can be transformed by a troubled and isolated point of view.