Spider

I watched David Cronenberg's Spider last night. It stars Ralph Fiennes as a crazy guy. By an odd coincidence, he was recently at the top of our casting target list to play Dracula in The Un-Dead. No dice, he's busy playing Voldemort until 2010.

I stayed away from Spider when it first came out. I wasn't wild about Existenz, and the reviews made this one sound kinda dull. But with this amazing rennaissance Cronenberg's been having, I decided to go back and catch up on the few titles I haven't seen.

A warning: this is a reeeeaaaaally slow movie. It's not for everyone. If you hated Broken Flowers, for instance, you should avoid this one and go see Meet the Spartans. Again.

Ralph Fiennes plays Spider. He's recently been let out of the asylum so he can go stay in a kinda halfway home type place. He gets his own room and a dresser and a bed. He spends all day wandering the streets, picking up cigarette butts and muttering to himself. At night, he takes notes in his journal. Spider keeps the journal hidden, like it's the most important thing in the world. The whole thing is full of nothing but squiggles.

This is everything that happens in act one.

I didn't mind, because it's obvious Fiennes really rolled up his sleeves, put on his acting hat and dove right in. It's always fun to watch a talented guy go to town on a role. (See also: Day-Lewis, Daniel).

Things get more intersting as Spider has flashbacks to his childhood. This is great because, without preamble, Spider just starts following this kid around. And you're thinking... hoo boy, he's crazy, what's gonna happen? Until you realize the kid is Spider as a child, and he's just being present in the past, if that makes sense. And it becomes clear that the stuff Spider mutters to himself all day are lines of dialogue from his past. He's never completely there in the present.

The story that unspools in flashback is great. It's very slow and measured, but it's this awesome combination of kitchen sink drama and Hitchcock. Again -- not for everyone, but I loved it.

So yeah, I'm telling you the entire movie is about a crazy guy who wanders around and remembers stuff, the end. But it's still Cronenberg. Not to get all foo-foo, but the framing is just brilliant. Shots that could otherwise be just little throwaways are perfectly composed, like photographic art. Cronenberg's not just brilliant, he makes it look easy.

Spider isn't as necessary as History of Violence or Eastern Promises. But I got the feeling the deep character study work helped lay the track for the later projects. It's an interesting film I wasn't sure I'd like, even with Cronenberg directing. Good thing I was wrong.