Touches You

Just what I expected

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

David Cronenberg found fame making pretty 'out there' films which, due to their content, never really received much mainstream attention, destined to become 'cult classics.' His most successful outing was the remake of 'The Fly,' but that was what most people would agree on was an outright 'horror.' Next he made 'Dead Ringers.' It's a story about a pair of identical twins (both played by Jeremy Irons thanks to some clever editing and camera tricks - no CGI here!) who are both brilliant surgeons and yet succumb to some pretty distasteful vices.It looked like Cronenberg had finally left his 'body horror' roots behind, moved through an outright horror film and was now making high-quality dramas with an A-list cast. And, for the first half of the film, you'd be right.If you've never seen any of Cronenberg's previous films, you may not get that weird feeling of 'normality' at just how ordinary the first half of this film is. We meet the twins. As I mentioned, they're both played excellently by Irons - making each of his characters instantly distinguish by their contrasting personalities. They go about their business of being a little too clever for their own good and it does have a 'regular' feeling about it all that would put it in with most other mainstream dramas.Then comes the second half. I know this is kind of a spoiler, but if you're really not into your 'gross-out' moments which involve some pretty disturbing 'body horror' moments then you're going to have to have a sick bag on standby for the second half of this film. It was like Cronenberg was just lulling us into a false sense of security and teasing us with the opening.Maybe this film is more of a horror than Cronenberg's previous efforts because there are no monsters here and nothing hideous that comes from a drug-fuelled nightmare. Everything nasty here comes from real people and Irons makes you believe that the two brothers are quite capable of acting out their crimes.It's certainly not an easy (or light) watch. It's almost two hours long and you really need to give it the respect it deserves by paying attention all the way through. So, if you're in the mood for something that doesn't involve superheroes flying around New York fighting aliens, then give this one a go (if you can stomach the second half!).

Set in Toronto 1988 Siamese twin the extrovert Elliot and the introvert Beverly (both played by the brilliant Jeremy Irons) are brilliant gynaecologist. Throughout out there lives the twins have shard homes, jobs and due to the identical physical appearances women. After a short relationship that includes the twins engaging in sado erotic sex with an actress named Claire (Geneviève Bujold). After a short time she discovers that they are two different people. Beverly soon fall in love with her, and after discovering Claire has a deformed womb and is infertile. She leaves for a new film and the twins believe she is sleeping with someone ells, this is the key to the once collated Beverly to fall into a spiral of depression, drugs and a strange belief that all women he sees have deformed wombs.The very opining sequences of the film highlight exactly the films subject matter is, which is sex the cold observation on the life cycle of the human race. This is recognised through the central performances by Jeremy Irons playing the two twins is titanic and operatic, every nuance he places into each twin is impeccable. This role however does have a tendency to ought-way the role of Geneviève Bujold, which in some respects reinforces how fragile her character is at heart. In terms of personal development for director Cronenberg, up to this point Dead Ringers was his most mature film. This is because in previous films such as Scanners, his subtext was directly translated throughout the gore, however Dead Ringers proves to be a more metaphysical representation of themes commonly found in Cronenberg work (such as sex, life, death and flesh). Where the threat of danger and themes are only hinted at. One example is the strange homo-erotic relation that the two twins have. Other examples are all the hinted terrors the film, and the underlining feeling that some thing bad will happen very soon. Over this part of the film may bring a negative element to the film ,where some of the pacing is slow and uneventful, this however works in the films favourer, for the final fifteen minutes are not only painful to watch but are sole destroying. The film has had an obvious influences to Takashi Miike Audition, in respects to the grime ending and all the way to Pascal Laugier Martyrs that has the same clinical view on life. Overall the film is a ner-perfict, with and this proving the be the most mature peace that director David Cronenberg had made at the time. However the minimalist approach to big themes may give people a empty feeling.

Cronenberg's unsettling denuding of an identical twins' inseparability wreaks controversy in its in-depth protrusion of psychiatric delusion and drug abuse, Jeremy Irons, plays the Mantle twins, both gynecologists and live together, even perversely share the same woman. Albeit their mirror-image resemblance, Beverly is the shy boffin while Elliot is the gregarious mouthpiece who is astute and dedicative in taking care of his younger brother's every need, after meeting a sterile actress (Claire) who has a mutant vagina, Beverly irrationally falls for her and slowly he becomes drug-addictive and paranoid (cause and effect), and even Elliot couldn't rescue him, a finally unhinged Beverly slips into the abyss and tragedy is irrevocable. Irons offers a tour-de-force engagement by splitting himself into two disparate roles, initially one wonders how could we tell them separately, and 5 minutes later, one will realize how distinguishable they are, Beverly is a meek soul, his life orbit is dominated and regulated by Elliot, who is sensible enough to admit they are an entity since neither of them could live without each other, nonetheless, the equilibrium has fatefully been violated by the interloper Claire, Bujold is feisty and emanates a cocktail of Independence and vulnerability which fatally enchants Beverly and triggers his downhill of the separation procedure. The midstream of the film deals with the decomposition of Beverly's mental stability has damped down by a slightly tedious script, which is wanting some explicable introductions to the mayhem it has caused, but the coda does save the pathos and it is mesmerizing and gives a sucker punch to the gut. Cronenberg's films often leave me some bitter aftertaste, last year's COSMOPOLIS (2012, 4/10) is beyond my interpretation, but DEAD RINGERS has its integral breakdown of a psychosexual drama, and fan-boys will be exulted to indulge in Cronenberg's signature chimerical shots (sundering the umbilical cord, the surgery ceremony in vermilion with a set of eerie apparatus) and there are magical contrivances to put two Jeremy Irons present in the same frames (deeming its pre-computer era), accolades should be also awarded to the film's steadfast emotion liberation, which encroaches inches by inches into the subliminal conscious of its protagonists, a compelling piece of work rests higher on the shelf than Cronenberg's other lesser creations.

Dead Ringers is directed by David Cronenberg who also co-adapts the screenplay with Norman Snider from the book "Twins" written by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland. It stars Jeremy Irons and Genevieve Bujold. Music is by Howard Shore and cinematography by Peter Suschitzky.Identical twin gynaecologists Beverly and Elliott Mantle (Irons) run a high end fertility clinic in the city. Both in tune with each in spite of being different personalities, their world starts to fold inwards when Beverly falls in love with drug dependent actress Claire Niveau (Bujold).Inspired by the real life story of gynaecologist twins Cyril and Steve Marcus (who were both found dead from suicide brought about by drug addiction), Dead Ringers is an amalgamation of unsettling horror and icy cold playfulness; in other words a perfect canvas for auteur Cronenberg to paint some of his peccadilloes. Cronenberg doesn't need to be gory, gimmicky or schlocky, he instead utilises the characters on the page to spin a clinical character study. Themes pulsing throughout involve individuality, identity, misogyny, narcissism, eroticism and addiction, all played out in the mystical world of surgery and in-human metaphysics. The tempo never rises above a steady heart beat, rumbling along ominously, until we enter the home straight and the director delivers a devastating yet deeply moving conclusion.Backed by a stunning dual performance from Irons, and a ballsy one from Bujold, Dead Ringers is a film of genuine greatness and a piece of work that's alive with smart ideas. 8.5/10