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Spider


SPIDER (2002)

There are plenty of movies about the mentally ill.  Many filmmakers and actors view it as a possible Oscar grab and audiences view it as a touching reminder of how much we take for granted.  From time to time, however, a film comes out that shows just how desolate true insanity can be.  It is usually not something that we can engage with and learn from, because it is so often indecipherable.  The insane have very little use for the real world, nor do they care much about those inhabiting it.  They have their own concerns; concerns that we can't even begin to understand.  David Cronenberg's Spider is not interested in tugging at your heartstrings or even teaching you a lesson.  Instead, it just wants to show you a portrait of impenetrable insanity and, maybe, give you a slight understanding of the true hell that it entails.  He tells the story Dennis Cleg, a man whose constant interaction with his intensely troubled past starts to get tangled up in his drab present.  By the end, Cleg's meshing of the two creates such a complete reality that we ourselves can't tell fact from fiction.  Perhaps that's the point.  Rather than try to explain who this man is, Cronenberg just wants us to live his life for a little while.  It is not the most pleasant experience, but, given the subject matter, it probably shouldn't be. 

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