Spider [DVD] [2003]

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Product Description ------------------- 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. Directed by David Cronenberg. .co.uk Review ------------- Internal madness is hypnotically externalized in David Cronenberg's Spider, a disturbing portrait of schizophrenia. Adapted by Patrick McGrath from his celebrated novel ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/0140146423/${0} ), this no-frills production begins when "Spider" Cleg (Ralph Fiennes, in a daring, nearly nonverbal role) returns to his childhood neighbourhood in London's dreary East End, where a traumatic event from his past percolates to the surface of his still-erratic consciousness. Released from a mental institution and left to fend for himself, he pursues elusive memories while staying in a halfway house run by a stern matron (Lynn Redgrave), unable to distinguish between past, present, and psychological fabrication. The distorting influence of Spider's mind is directly reflected in Cronenberg's cunning visual strategy, presenting a shifting "reality" that's deliberately untrustworthy, until the veracity of nearly every scene is called into question. With an impressive dual-role performance by Miranda Richardson, Spider falls prey to its own lugubrious rhythms, but like the accled 1995 indie film Clean, Shaven, it's a compelling glimpse of mental illness, seen from the inside out. --Jeff Shannon