Huh... There are films which keep you silent after the screening. There are two extremity: something is too bad or too good. You don't feel anything to say after this, but personally agree with those who almost cannot talk after Klimov's unbelievable Idi i smotri too. Luckily Cronenberg's new film is among the later examples.I'm saying this despite I'm absolutely not a Cronenberg fan. For example – and now you can start to throw stons against me – the last piece (A History of Violence) from his auteur camera made me really disappointed. Maybe after the new one I will give another try to that one...
"Mom, are you okay?"
"Of course not, it's Christmas."
As you can see it doesn't start as a perfect family movie for Christmas. Actually if you don't like/bare explicit violence/blood/brutality, it's better not to watch (even outside Christmas-period). We are in present London, where the city's backyard full with immigrants who live their own life (everything is behind the touristic scenes of the city, there is only one sequence which refers to London how we know it). I almost said "who live their own life just like at home", but the film makes me sober and pulls me out from my convenient prejudices. The Russian maffia's boss gives the provocative statement: "I think London's blame for what Kirill is." The Western promises give false hopes for the people of the Eastern parts (of Europe). The image what it shows doesn't fit to the reality, to the "normal" reality of these people. They becomes whore or criminal because they are chasing some fake dreams, something which looks better than their former lives. The Western promises are responsible for all the processes which are happening today in Europe. The funny thing is that the Western countries are usually blame the Eastern immigrants because of their way of living, but don't realize that they make them who they are. The city's cultural pot makes some strange mixtures of human behavior, traditions and values. Cultural mutations.
Cronenberg's inquiry in these odd mutational mixtures is an old story. Common knowledge: usually he is interested in the different transformations of the body. Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenZ,... I really don't need to continue. I feel this time he added a new actual value for these freak-shows: maybe first time he choose something acute, something which isn't timeless. We have the importance of the body here as well: meaningful tattoos, rape, murder, birth and death at the same moment, pulled out teeth, cutted fingers, freezed down corpses, and so on. But everything is embed into the chaotic intercultural "Now". Cronenberg doesn't need to slide into the sci-fi genre anymore, the reality in 2007's London lets his sick imagination look real.
By the way, realism: If you want to show some – for example Russian – authenticity, you don't need to travel East. Like some anthropologist, Cronenberg gives perfect view on the insane world of the globalized traditions. His characters are phenomenal (I hate this word's exaggerations, but this time...), at least the actors and actresses make these figures unbelievable true. If I say Vincent Cassel's language is more Russian than any of my Russian acquaintances, then what should I say about Viggo Mortensen's acting. He is just p e r f e c t! After this post I'm going to watch the scene again, where he defrosts (!) some unlucky dude. You have to watch it and forget all the poisoned background-interests about who and why will win the next Oscar prize...
Cronenberg is back (yes, I believe he climbed out from some crisis). I'm happy, and the sign of my enthusiasm is without any doubt:
10/10
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