Cosmopolis Reviews

What the hell was this movie? I was aware that it had been rather poorly received when it was released but since I always had a weak spot for David Cronenberg's work, I was still eager to check this movie. Well, it turned out to be a rather unpleasant experience and I would go as far as saying that it is the weakest movie directed by Cronenberg that I have seen so far. Of course, you could blame Robert Pattinson for ruining the whole thing just because of the whole 'Twilight' phenomenon but I think he was actually well cast and he has delivered here a solid performance, just like the rest of the star-studded cast (Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, Paul Giamatti, Jay Baruchel, Mathieu Amalric). The problem is that I just couldn't care less for these vacuous characters who were apparently unable to have a normal conversation but, instead they would constantly give some rather obscure and annoying riddles. Seriously, after 5 minutes, I pretty much knew where the whole thing was getting at, I was already completely bored and the only thing I could do is wait until it ended. Anyway, to conclude, after 3 really solid movies starring Viggo Mortensen, this feature was definitely quite a step down for David Cronenberg and I don't think it is really worth a look.

A difficult movie to manage; but looking back... it could be kind of genius, or it's at least a consideration considering it's from Cronenberg and very different from anything he's attempted before.

Here is a movie from a director that I admire greatly, David Cronenberg, featuring zeitgeist themes and dialog, which I just could not get into the frequency of. Others love it, but I found it an annoying, shrill frequency to try to tune myself in on. The best word I could think of for it was didactic. And that’s most of my problem with it.

In-between scene after scene speechifying about cyber-capital and protests over the soulessness and greed of the 1%, we’re treated to a succession of random characters who show up for one scene, and don’t really matter much once they’ve disappeared. The performances vary, most are in a highly stylized deadpan, and a few are given the chance to emote and actually make an impact (Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti, and no one else), and at the center of it all is Robert Pattinson. I can’t decide if he’s just a terrible actor with no true discernible talent besides starring off broodingly, or if those same trademarks work well for this performance. The dialog never flows correctly out of his mouth, and any time he tries to conjure up a real emotion he just seems to flail about, but there’s a level of snark that’s quite nice in the role.

A vast majority of the film takes place in limo of Pattinson’s character, not all of it, we are treated to several brief scenes which play out like random stops on a road trip to visit tourist traps and freak shows. This limo is really more of a rolling war room, outfitted with every tool one could think of that someone in any variation of the financial industry would need to do business. And we’re told numerous times that this thing can do some impressive tricks, pity we don’t witness much. There are lots of fancy screens and a bar, but nothing too terribly impressive.

And that’s the movie. Characters come and go, only long enough to deliver a speech about this invisible currency that exists only as binary when you truly think about it, and we move from one point of the city to another. There’s provocative ideas brought up, but it’s so unbelievably uninteresting. Cosmopolis always feels like it’s trying far too hard to be edgy, profound, rebellious, avant-garde as it drones on and on and on. Whoever wants it, can have this mess of a film. I’ll cuddle up with Videodrome and The Fly any night of the week instead.

Incredibly difficult for me to REALLY get an idea of how much I enjoyed the film. I feel that with another re-watch, my enjoyment would improve. One awesome end performance by Paul Giamatti. Really worth a watch this one!

Where do I begin? Everything is so well adapted, and it's like Cronenberg said "the dialogue in the movie is 100% from the book". This film is not for everybody, is complex but you want to watch it again and again so you can fully engross all the lines. For me, none of the performances dissapoint that makes it more awesome. I think with time Cosmopolis will become a cult film. Thank you Cronenberg and thank you Robert, this is one of my favorite movies of 2012.