Cosmopolis

I had a drink and slouched down on the leather seat in the corner, and after a while I never wanted to leave. So private, so peaceful, so safe. I need a limo in my life.

Cosmopolis is a meeting of geniuses. It is a masterpiece. A combination of a genius writer, a genius director and script writer and a genius actor. Shake and stir and we get Cosmopolis; the kind of high quality movie we rarely get to see made, a movie in a genre of its own. A deep, intellectual, intense story with heart. A movie that hits you deeply and stays.

Don DeLillo's fantastic story; with such philosophical depth, such insight into the human mind and the world we live in. A metaphorical limo ride, a life condensed into a day. The life of Eric Packer.

David Cronenberg and his team; creating the world Eric lives in and bringing the story to life in the best of ways. David's sensitive and precise way of filmmaking, providing the needed creative space for the actors and delicately capturing their performances on camera.

Robert Pattinson, immersing himself into the complex character of Eric Packer and giving a mind-blowing performance. The brilliant mind, the intensity, the never ending curiosity, the impulsiveness, the constant hunger in every way, the inner fears, the burdens, the restlessness, the excessive need for control, the combination of growing old too quickly and still being so young. His impatient voice, trying to restrain himself and wait for others to catch up. The people coming and going in his life, as mirrors to who Eric is and where he is heading. The journey to get to know himself, to realize what life is all about and what makes it worth living.

An amazing movie. A movie that will go down in history as an example of filmmaking at its best. A masterpiece.

***

What is life? What is a life?

days, nights, coming, going

people you know, or don't

things happening, or not

stuff you do, stuff you know, or not

you bring all you can

play by all the rules

success, accomplishments, possessions, then what?

is that it?

there has to be more

otherwise, what's the point?

***

Cronenberg's Cosmopolis is an adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel. The Novel is accepted as unfilmable an as one of the few novels which composes a precise image of our zeitgeist. The movie is not just based on Cronenberg's clever written script that could be a marvellous play for theatres but also a well directed movie with a talented cast and gets the audience into the atmosphere of a Japanese surreal anime. Nonetheless the movie is a marketing mistake of its kind. The negative reviews that emphasis the main actor Robert Pattinson's ex-sanguine performance are not to understand, since he is exactly as vampire as his character Eric Packer, a 28 years old egoist with a lot of money. However the reason of the box-office flop can be understood. First reason is the difference of target groups: It is possible that neither real Cronenberg fans (because of the poster of Pattinson on the foreground) nor Pattinson fans (since it's not a teenage movie) had the intention to see the movie. Second reason is he wrong advertisement: The audience watches an action trailer but finds out it is a Japanese surreal anime. This masterpiece of art proves us that even sci-fi legend David Cronenberg can flop on box-office.

Eric Packer, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager, crosses the city of NY in his limo to get a haircut.

All great artists, in this case, directors, have a bad work, and for me, this film is a splinter impossible to remove in Cronenberg's career.

There's no story here to follow, the dialogues are empty and sometimes pretentious, without substance that can be extracted from them, leaving the message of political and economic criticism completely distorted.

The characters have no soul, I simply couldn't connect and create empathy with them.

The photography made me scratch my head and thinking "why you did this?", I didn't see any credible reasons for using so many close-ups shots, or the sly CGI in the limo scenes.

Even Robert Patinson cannot save a scene from this film.

If you are going to watch this movie, you need to give yourself adequate space to do so. This is a philosophical movie and not exactly easy to watch. It comes across more as visual poetry than anything else and therefore won't appeal to a mass audience. Which is partially the reason for a rather low score on this site. In my opinion it deserves more; the reason for this is that I firmly believe a movie has to be critiqued on the basis of it's type - you shouldn't judge this movie on the basis of all movies, but other movies of this sort, which are close adaptations of novels packed with dense dialogue and philosophical themed subject matter. The question you're looking for the answer to is "should I watch this movie?" And yes, you should, but curb your expectations to what type of movie it is. In it's genre, I find it thoughtprovoking and streamlined; It's a limo slowly being covered by graffiti; Something cold, perfect and seamless being torn apart from within. You will find no typical storyline and no lovable characters; at several times I thought to myself that these characters are in fact portraying computers assessing and processing information and various symptoms of the human condition. People do not talk like they do in this movie. The movie is very well executed and absolutely worth your time. If you are interested in this type of movie that is - and if that's the case it will likely leave you inspired in some way because you are constantly thinking throughout.

I'm not sure if I'm more amused or more disappointed by the reaction by so many reviewers here of this film. No, it's not your Hollywood production, it contains few digital effects, no action, not even your standard "Cronenberg gore". This is a novel, and is presented in a way that's similar to the novel; with characters and dialog. As these elements are revealed, and the story unfolds as it does, I was left with a very interesting and satisfying experience.

I wonder if many of the folks giving this a poor review, saying it's boring or confusing, are simply unprepared for what they're renting, and they blame the movie for not meeting expectations. This happened to me. I started the movie while tired and impatient for distraction. After 15 minutes, I shut the film off and waited a couple of days for the right mood to kick in (awake, curious, searching for intellectual stimulation) before starting "Cosmopolis" from the beginning. Some movies are an escape from the work, and/or from thinking. This is not one of them.

I don't like to give spoilers in my reviews, so I will only say to anyone reading, rent this if you're in the mood for a unique movie that gives you cause to reflect and think. And be patient- despite what some have said, I think the ending is exactly right.