Director: David
Cronenberg
Released: 1999
Starring: Jennifer
Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Willem Dafoe, Don McKellar, Callum
Keith Rennie, Christopher Eccleston, Sarah Polley, Robert A.
Silverman, Oscar Hsu, Kris Lemche, Vik Sahay
Plot: Allegra Gellar
(Leigh) is one of the best game designers in the world working toward
the launch of her new virtual reality game eXistenZ, but when she is
attacked by a crazed assassin she is forced to go on the run with
marketing trainee Ted (Law). Fearing that her game might have been
damaged in the attack she talks Ted into playing the game with her
only to soon find the real and virtual world becoming all the more
blended the more they play.
Review: What is it
about Cronenbergs career that no one else seems to talk about the
films which fall between his remake of “The Fly” and “A History of Violence”? Its not that these films are any less interesting or
enjoyable than the films which he made either side of this period
some of these films arguably better than the ones which came before
or after them and yet with the exception of “Crash” whose
controversial release marks it out much like “Naked Lunch” which
had the benefit of being linked to William Burroughs cult novel this
remains a seemingly forgotten period for Cronenberg which only now
seems to be getting the appreciation it deserves with “Dead
Ringers” as I write this quickly coming into vogue at present with
cult cinema fans. This film however I would cite as the most
bizarrely over looked of these films a feeling I’ve had about the
film since I first saw it where it left me bewildered that it wasn’t
being more talked about, while its release in 1999 over provides
further evidence of it still being the best movie year.
Working from the his
first original script since “Videodrome” here the focus hasn’t
changed as the focus is once more on societies relationship with
technology this time moving the focus from television to video games
while also working in his still popular themes of disease, mutation
and Infection as like with “Videodrome” he leads us down another
twisted rabbit hole. At the same time
while the basis for
this world might be in Video Games and perhaps to an extent virtual
reality, its a world still very much seen through Cronenberg’s eye
which see’s players connecting themselves to fleshy game pods via
umbilical like cords which connect to the base of their spines. Once
in the video game world of the game its almost impossible to tell
what’s reality with the exception of characters appearing to be
stuck on a loop if the player doesn’t present them with the right
line of dialogue for them to respond to. This is of course the trap
that Cronenberg sell us as things get only the more progressively
weirder as the film continues with Allegra and Ted at one point
working in a slaughterhouse style manufacture line where the game
pods are seemingly being constructed out of various animal organs.
Compared to some of
his other films the mutation aspect is pretty light here with the
standout moment coming when the leftovers of “The Special” at a
Chinese restaurant turn themselves into a bio-mechanical pistol
complete with teeth bullets. The scene played out with much
mechanical ease by Jude Law as he unwittingly pieces the weapon
together his body working independently from his mind. True this
might be lighter than James Woods pushing a video cassette into the
video player formed in his chest but what we get here is none the
less effective with some memorable imagery featured throughout.
Even when in the
supposed real world there is always something to hold the audiences
attention with Cronenberg not needing to go into a virtual world
before he is introducing some of the more weird and memorable aspects
of the film as seen with a would be assassin trying to kill Allegra
using a bio-mechanical gun in a scene inspired by the Fatwa being
declared on author Salman Rushdie after he released “The Satanic
Verses”. Frustratingly its never made overly clear what about
Allegra’s game is cause for such protest let alone an attempted
assassination attempt and to this extent it really only serves as a
catalyst for the main story than being fleshed out as much as I would
have liked, more so when the film comes full circle by its finale.
For the most part
the film is carried by both Leigh and Law as they try to make sense
of what is happening around them encountering a number of colourful
and interesting characters along their journey from Willem Dafoe’s
mechanic Gas who also has a sideline in bio-ports through to the
Bio-pod surgeon and Allegra’s mentor Kiri (Holm) who operates out
of a disused ski lodge continuing the theme of things turning up in
surprisingly places which features throughout the film. Each of these
encounters proving memorable in their own ways with Cronenberg not
wasting time on filler here while the ongoing mystery is only added
to further by another of classic score by long term collaborator
Howard Shore.
Thanks to some
misguiding advertisements on the films release selling the film as
more of an action film it has for some reason left the film one of
the more sadly overlooked entries on Cronenberg’s resume and while
it might not be one from his golden period this is still him working
at his most creative and inventive best