Robert Pattinson Australia

Empire & MovieFix Review Cosmopolis

Ian Nathan of Empire has some wonderful praise for Rob & the film here.  Here are some excerpts:

David Cronenberg hasn’t been thisCronenbergian in a while: so icy-calm, intellectual and bleakly funny. Not that he hasn’t been making decent films, challenging his own orthodoxy with sleek Euro-thrillers and Keira Knightley getting spanked. It’s just that Cosmopolis recalls the clinical realms of body-shock with which he made his name; only this is a creeping horror for our times where the disease is capitalism.

…Cronenberg’s approach corresponds to the quiet hum of this aerodynamic limo “cork-lined against street noise” gliding through a city both strange and familiar. His film is as slick as mercury, contemporary but with the aura of science fiction, calmly summoning an existential dread. Here are the taut, super-cool urban paranoias of Davids Fincher and Lynch, Michael Mann, Christopher Nolan and Nicolas Winding Refn, but atomised by the unmistakable brainwaves of the wizard who gave us Crash and Videodrome.

…Cronenberg at his most remote can be an acquired taste. There will be those flummoxed by the lack of action, the slow pace, the ambiguity. What does Packer seek? Escape from the ceaseless flow of information? Stimulation? Proof of life? A soul? Orgasms are had, food is consumed, violence meted out, prostates probed (in a squelchy self-homage to the more biologically minded Cronenberg) but nothing breaks through — he is the ultimate expression of the void at the top of the world. It’s also too long in the tail: the final encounter borders on the inanely surreal, a babbling weirdo too far (although it could be read as Packer confronting a perverse manifestation of himself).

Frustrations but not catastrophes, praise must go to Pattinson’s terrific performance. A magnetic, mesmerising anti-presence, the perfect redeployment of the pin-up cheekbones of the R-Pattz myth. As the camera gazes deeper into his frozen face, we detect a concerto of tiny twitches, lurking smirks and trickles of sweat — micro-fluctuations in the sanity of a man who has everything.

VERDICT

A part hypnotic, part profound, part send-up meditation on our financially imploding time.  4 stars

Click on the link at the top of the post to read the review in full.

Only short, but Grant McAvaney of MovieFix has some great things to say.  Am loving the last sentence.

There is no better place right now to see the Twilight star at his brooding best than in director David Cronenberg’s timely adaptation of Don DeLillo’s morbidly intelligent novel of the same name, Cosmopolis.

Drawing mixed reactions since its unveiling at Cannes this year, Cosmopolis is in part frustrating, but mostly brilliant, right down to the final thrilling scene (featuring the ever-talented Paul Giamatti).

A misleading description of the film could have you think it’s about a really rich guy, Eric Packer (competently played by Pattinson) struggling to get his custom-made limousine across a traffic-and-protester-jammed city so he can get a haircut from his childhood barber.

More accurately, Cosmopolis is an Orwellian look at the beast of capitalism. This motif is explored via the control-hungry Packer who, used to getting what he wants, finds himself on a voyage of self-destruction (or deconstruction?) while he obsesses over his asymmetrical prostate as the financial markets strip away his wealth.

The dialogue-heavy script, the clever industrial soundtrack and the fact that much of the film takes place in Packer’s limousine, may at times lead you to believe you are watching a raw small-stage theatrical production. And I say that in the best possible way.

However, Cronenberg’s attention to symbolic detail – whether it be whirling dervishes at a funeral, protesters surrounding the limousine or the screenplay itself written by Cronenberg – makes it perfect for the big screen. And I say that in the best possible way.

If playright Harold Pinter was alive to write a sequel to Fight Club, then Cosmopolis could be it. For that reason, it won’t be everyone’s film of choice. But don’t listen to the haters – this linguistically complex and eloquently dark film is much more clever than pretentious.

4 stars

I cannot wait for tomorrow at 3.30 when I will see Rob as Eric with my own eyes 😀