Dennis Clegg is in his thirties and lives in a halfway house for the mentally disturbed in London.
Dennis, nicknamed "Spider" by his mother, had been institutionalised with acute schizophrenia for some 20 years.
He has never truly recovered, and as he begins to remember his past, people around him vicariously experience his increasingly fragile grip on reality.....
For a Cronenberg film, it's a very different path the director has taken, it's probably one of the most narratively straight forward films he has made during his illustrious career.
You could view it as Cronenberg does a Kitchen Sink Drama, or the most depressing episode of Mr. Bean you could ever wish not to see. But the last comment would be totally unfair on Feinnes, because he puts in wonderful, almost muted performance as the titular character.
The past is most definitely the most interesting part of the film, as the story centres on Dennis's dad, played wonderfully by Byrne. Fiennes may put in a wonderful performance, but Mr. Clegg is most certainly the most interesting, fleshed out character in the film, and sometimes it feel like Spider is only featured in the film so we can follow Mr. Cleggs arc feasibly.
Mr. Clegg is sadly facing midlife crisis, slowly coming to the understanding that this is his life, and this is how it's going to be for a very long time, so he begins an extra marital affair with what appears to be a doppelganger of his wife, played brilliantly by Richardson.
And this is where the film gets interesting as we begin to realise that What's affected spider is something that he saw from his bedroom window, something that all children dread to see, Their parents being amorous toward each other.
This is where the film asks the question, Is Mr. Clegg having an affair, or are the couple simply spicing up their personal life, and the scene at the allotment is nothing more than a metaphor for saying goodbye to the old life.
But obviously Spider's fragile mind id seeing it from the former perspective, and his mother is no longer the innocent angel he once saw her as, but as a totally different person, thanks to that few seconds when he saw her with his dad.
It's very Freudian in it's nature, and it does take a lot of patience, but Cronenberg has made a wonderfully subtle film.
Dennis, nicknamed "Spider" by his mother, had been institutionalised with acute schizophrenia for some 20 years.
He has never truly recovered, and as he begins to remember his past, people around him vicariously experience his increasingly fragile grip on reality.....
For a Cronenberg film, it's a very different path the director has taken, it's probably one of the most narratively straight forward films he has made during his illustrious career.
You could view it as Cronenberg does a Kitchen Sink Drama, or the most depressing episode of Mr. Bean you could ever wish not to see. But the last comment would be totally unfair on Feinnes, because he puts in wonderful, almost muted performance as the titular character.
The past is most definitely the most interesting part of the film, as the story centres on Dennis's dad, played wonderfully by Byrne. Fiennes may put in a wonderful performance, but Mr. Clegg is most certainly the most interesting, fleshed out character in the film, and sometimes it feel like Spider is only featured in the film so we can follow Mr. Cleggs arc feasibly.
Mr. Clegg is sadly facing midlife crisis, slowly coming to the understanding that this is his life, and this is how it's going to be for a very long time, so he begins an extra marital affair with what appears to be a doppelganger of his wife, played brilliantly by Richardson.
And this is where the film gets interesting as we begin to realise that What's affected spider is something that he saw from his bedroom window, something that all children dread to see, Their parents being amorous toward each other.
This is where the film asks the question, Is Mr. Clegg having an affair, or are the couple simply spicing up their personal life, and the scene at the allotment is nothing more than a metaphor for saying goodbye to the old life.
But obviously Spider's fragile mind id seeing it from the former perspective, and his mother is no longer the innocent angel he once saw her as, but as a totally different person, thanks to that few seconds when he saw her with his dad.
It's very Freudian in it's nature, and it does take a lot of patience, but Cronenberg has made a wonderfully subtle film.