Notable Director Works: David Cronenberg

This movie takes Norman Rockwell’s America and matures it into a force to be reckoned with. The plot follows mild-mannered, small-town diner owner Tom Stall (Viggo Mortenson) through the repercussions of his heroic act of violence (trying to keep it general here; apologies for the poor writing).

            Cronenberg utilizes wide-angle lenses to give context to every character and shot. He brings the violence right into your face, occurring like it does in real life: quickly and without warning. The film chooses to focus on the effects of violent acts on Tom, his family, and the bodies (it does have that familiar Cronenberg gore aspect).

            But the truth is, History of Violence takes on so many aspects of society (a simple read through of reviews and analyses gives you an idea of just how many ways to read into this movie there are) and manages to pull off a superb piece of cinema to boot. Truly, Cronenberg the auteur at his best.

Eastern Promises is a nice companion piece to Cronenberg’s previous Eastern Promises; both focus on the effects of violence on a community (granted, their scopes are pretty different) and feature Viggo Mortenson prominently in a similar role of a man swathed in violence. The movies both beautifully play off the withholding of information (hence the ambiguity here; seriously, it’s killing me).

    While the in your face violence is minimal (it is still Cronenberg, and there is the (now) infamous bathhouse scene; so gore freaks fear not!) the atrocity of the whole situation is still driven home; largely by voice over work done by Tatiana Maslany (who I don’t know from anything else, but was apparently in The Vow?)—perhaps one of the most notable uses of voiceover in a movie since The Shawshank Redemption.

            This is another a masterfully crafted film in the pair-up between Mortenson and Cronenberg. Save yourself the mental labor that is A Dangerous Method (not in a good way (I’m lookin’ at you Memento)) and just pop this one in for a truly good time.

Well that was disappointing. (Hey! That’s the theme of this post!!!)

Let’s just start ourselves off with…. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy!

To be fair: we had already seen Girl with the Dragon Tattoo earlier in the day (a 3 hour endeavor) and waited around for 3 hours after missing the 7 o’clock show. So we were not in the best of spirits coming in.

That said; this movie was slow. Made by Tomas Alfredson, (Let the Right One In) you could definitely feel his stamp on this film. It was slow and methodical; held together by potently gruesome images. However, there was not enough compelling build-up to the man behind the mystery. The film circulates around the retired Agent Smiley (Gary Oldman) trying to find the mole in the British secret service. The rest of the cast is rounded out by many other English superstars such as Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, and William Hurt. While it was well acted, all in all, we found it to lack any sense of tempo or rhythm. The climax never gave us any resolution because nothing seemed to build to it. Instead of dancing across the floor, it walked. Like Annabelle from Arrested Development. To us it was just Tinker Tailor Soldier Snooooore.

And now, we move on to one of our most anticipated films of the year: A Dangerous Method. From critically acclaimed, Canadian auteur, David Cronenberg; A Dangerous Method depicts the story between the strange relationship between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortenson) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) at the birth of psychoanalysis.

That said: MAJOR disappointment. Unlike most of Cronenberg’s canon (Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, Shivers, and The Fly (remake)) A Dangerous Method lacked any sort of logical pacing or innovative writing. Most disappointing: there seemed to be a lack of subtext and complexity to the story he was telling. It was a very talky film; it obviously never paid attention in high school when they tell you to “show” not “tell”.  No scene was longer than 3 minutes, unless there was a cheesy, “reading this letter” voiceover, montage happening. It seemed so conventional, which is the last thing you want from a Cronenberg movie. Unlike the challenging narratives Cronenberg poses to his audience, this film falls into an attempt at a tragic love story between Jung and his mistress, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly). We consider this A Dangerous Disappointment.