Cosmopolis (2012)

Genre

Drama

Director

David Cronenberg

Country

USA

Cast

Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon, Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Matthieu Amalric, Juliette Binoche, Jay Barucel, Kevin Durand, Philip Nozuka, K'naan, Emily Hampshire, Patricia McKenzie

Storyline

28-year-old billionaire Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) is riding across Manhattan in a limo just to get a haircut. This simple quest, however, develops into an odyssey as the people he meets start to tear his world apart.

Opinion

Although I wasn't very fond of A Dangerous Method (I had to watch it in multiple sittings, and I did that only because of Michael Fassbender), I usually like Cronenberg's films. They are both fascinating and terrifying. And thought-provoking. And hard to sit through. Well, Cosmopolis as well was pretty hard to sit through, the reason being it was dreadfully tedious. Pretty much like A Dangerous Method.

There isn't much of a plot - the poor (so to speak) guy only wanted to get a freaking haircut, he only picked the wrong day. And by the way, who, in a day of protest, would go to a dangerous neighbourhood on the other side of the city only to get a haircut? -, there are just a lot of things happening at random that don't make a lot of sense.

I would have gladly passed over it if the script had more to offer. But unfortunately, that isn't the case. Although the dialogue is interesting, weird, quite complex, makes sense, way more sense of the events taking place, and alone manages to handle plenty of contemporary issues such as solitude, alienation, capitalism, technology, power, sex and many others, the characters are shallow, to say the least. They can't even be called characters since they are just some famous actors appeared out of nowhere to have a deep and meaningful conversation with Robert Pattinson. I would have probably enjoyed more a Robert Pattinson's monologue, also because there wasn't much of a debate between him and the people.

And that brings me to one of the few things I was able to appreciate about Cosmopolis, Robert Pattinson (thank God, I'd add, because he's the reason I decided to watch it in the first place). He carries the role beautifully, delivering each line of dialogue to perfection and some humour as well. Among the other famous people, Sarah Gadon deserves a mention for playing Pattinson's wife Elise. The character is pretty shallow but she gives a solid performance and their sexual tension is up to the roof.

At last, the visuals. The film is simply gorgeous to look at. The dream-like photography is stunning, the limousine setting is very claustrophobic.

8 comments :

  1. Il libro di DeLillo รจ stato una piccola delusione.. Il film ancora non sono riuscita a finirlo e giuro, ho provato ad affrontarne la visione diverse volte. Spero di recuperarlo per intero prima o poi!

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    1. Io non ho letto il libro e non intendo farlo.

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  2. E' puro Cronenberg, nel bene e nel male: film ostico e faticoso, onirico, difficile da seguire ma (almeno per me) dotato di grande fascino... certo non per tutti.

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    1. Credo sia difficile da seguire un po' per tutti.

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  3. I really didn't like this one. I don't even remember what it was about anymore, just that I thought it was dreadfully boring.

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    1. Lol I'm pretty sure I'll soon forget about it too

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  4. Cronenberg is not my favourite director because I find him juts fucked up weird. This film holds no appeal to me. I remember watching Crash with all these big stars and it was horrible. They would get into crashes and then have sex...that's all I remember

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    1. Crash is on my watchlist but now I think I'll take it off.

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