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Spider

Spider (2002)

December. 20,2002
|
6.8
|
R
| Drama Thriller Mystery

A mentally disturbed man takes residence in a halfway house. His mind gradually slips back into the realm created by his illness, where he replays a key part of his childhood.

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Reviews

Matialth
2002/12/20

Good concept, poorly executed.

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ThedevilChoose
2002/12/21

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

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Allison Davies
2002/12/22

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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Mathilde the Guild
2002/12/23

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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The Couchpotatoes
2002/12/24

I am a fan of David Cronenberg's work but I disagree with some other reviewers that write Spider is his best movie. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad at all but it was just a bit slow and sometimes too confusing to me. If there was one thing that was really good in Spider then it was the performance of Ralph Fiennes. He plays his role as the mentally disturbed Spider very well. The rest of the cast did a good job as well. Nothing bad to say about any of the actors. Even though the story is sometimes confusing at the end you get most of the answers. Some that you did see coming by the way. All in all it was a good movie to watch once but saying it's David Cronenberg's best is a bit exaggerated.

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jpdhadfield
2002/12/25

i caught this on telly, luckily i could record it,as it quite long and dull, i was intrigued, but not enough to watch it in one sitting, long expanses of nothing happening, which maybe true of most mentally ill people, but very boring to watch, the twist at the end, explains it all, but not enough to bother watching it.The acting is good, and Fiennes plays mad very well, and we've all seen people like this in town, muttering to themselves, spoiler alert, im not sure about the halfway house, as its supposed to be nowadays, but it looked very 1970's as health and safety would never allow a home like that,and building sites in the passed didn't have mesh fencing around them, i wouldn't recommend this film to anybody ,unless they liked film noir,reminded me of Swedish films on bbc 2, years ago,

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Lantzet
2002/12/26

* A stunning psychological thriller, with very unexpected turns, like in true thriller. However, the film avoids the horror trap, where the shocking scenes are the film's objective in itself. There are no such scenes in this film. * Though a thriller, yet not intended to be only that. Instead, it is an almost clinical, cold description of a schizophrenic. One almost feels what it is like to be a schizophrenic. This was so expressive that I had dreams the night after I saw the film, which I seldom have. * The film shows a deep human tragedy of the main character. However, it does not fall into the trap: "that poor mentally-disturbed human and that inhuman society which treats him as ... mentally-disturbed". * Summing up: - A brilliant thriller with a psychological depth, or rather a drama in a thriller setting. - But neither masterpiece of thriller nor masterpiece of drama. - With superb acting (R. Fiennes - main character) and direction (D. Cronenberg). - Leaves a deep, long-lasting impression and many questions to think about. - I could watch this film once more after some time.

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Desertman84
2002/12/27

Internal madness is hypnotically externalized in David Cronenberg's Spider, a disturbing portrait of schizophrenia that was adapted by Patrick McGrath from his celebrated novel.This drama stars Ralph Fiennes,Miranda Richardson and Gabriel Byrne.The film is a story of Dennis Cleg, a man who is given a room in a halfway house catering to mentally disturbed persons. Cleg has just been released from a mental institution and in his new abode starts piecing together or recreating in his memory an apparently fateful childhood event. He roams the nearby derelict urban area and the local canal and starts to relive or visualize a period of his childhood in 1950s London with his mother and his father. A shift takes place in the child's psyche when he witnesses his mother groping with his father in the garden and, subsequently, when he sees his mother in a silky night gown she wore for his father. The son, as a grown man seems to recreate in his memory the build up to his father's murder of his mother with the passive support of his mistress who then moves into the house and is presented as his mother. The young son then kills the mistress by gassing her in the kitchen. After that memory he attempts late one night to kill the landlady who sees alternatively as the mistress and his mother, he is taken back to the asylum.Cronenberg pieces together a compelling portrait of madness, but one which lacks the poignancy to be a rich, moving character study.Aside from that,it fails to connect with its audience and concludes in a contradictory and jumbled fashion.But despite of its flaws,this is one of the director's most accomplished films as it remains a pleasure to watch in such an understated treatment of potentially sensational subject matter.Also,Ralph Fiennes provides a brilliant and startling performance as a mentally ill person.

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