Having just left the mental institution where he has lived for the past 20 years, Spider (Ralph Fiennes) takes up residence at the East London boarding house run by Mrs Wilkinson (Miranda Richardson). As he walks these same streets where he grew up, he begins to recall the traumatic events which lead to his breakdown. Piece by piece, Spider's memory comes together, and as it does, his grip on reality grows ever more tenuous. Fiennes delivers a raw and convincing performance as the man institutionalised for twenty years.
Spider, the powerful and haunting new film from Canadian director David Cronenberg, takes us on a journey through a disturbed man's psyche - a story in which we are un... more >
Spider, the powerful and haunting new film from Canadian director David Cronenberg, takes us on a journey through a disturbed man's psyche - a story in which we are uncertain to the end about what is truth and what is fiction. Dennis Clegg (Ralph Fiennes), who was nicknamed "Spider" by his mother, is released from psychiatric custody where he has been a schizophrenic patient for twenty years. He takes up residence at a halfway house in a bleak, run-down section of East End London, the same neighborhood where he grew up. As he wanders the shadowy streets, Spider begins to recall his fractured boyhood as the only child of an abusive plumber (Gabriel Byrne) and his doting wife (Miranda Richardson). He sees himself as a ten-year-old boy reliving the traumatic situations that led to his confinement.
Cronenberg shows the adult Spider lurking in the background of the childhood scenes, re-experiencing his past like a living ghost who has come to observe the dead. Fiennes turns in an Oscar-caliber performance of amazing strength.. Though he mumbles in a virtually inaudible way throughout, Fiennes is never false or "over-the-top" as in other recent portrayals of schizophrenics. Equally outstanding is Miranda Richardson, who plays both Spider's mother and the floozy his dad brings home from the pub. Cronenberg's vision is bleak and unsparing, using mood and expression rather than dialogue to achieve its effect. This is not a film about schizophrenia or how the mentally ill can rise above their disability, but about the lonely journey of all men to discover the truth about themselves. Spider is a brilliant tour-de-force and a gut-wrenching experience.
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