Review: Cosmopolis

David Cronenberg's latest film, Cosmopolis follows a sociopathic man-child in his space-age (laughably so) limousine as he travels across town through traffic jams caused by a visit from the President and anti-capitalism demonstrations, so that he can visit his childhood barber shop. His chief of security tries and tries to dissuade him pointing out the numerous nearby salons but he is insistent that it is a particular haircutting experience that he desires, one that can only be delivered by his childhood barber. The film is the 24-hour journey across Manhattan (actually Toronto) to get a haircut, however it is more than a  seemingly pointless limousine ride and actually a slow meditation on the dehumanising effects of unbridled power and capitalism.

Based on the novel by Don DeLillo, Robert Pattinson plays Eric Packer, a 28 year old asset manager billionaire who constantly craves stimuli, sex, pain, violence and yet who is also an unashamed hypochondriac (in one scene he conducts a business discussion whilst having his prostrate examined in his limo). Bad currency speculation causes Eric to lose billions as he rides his limousine to his barbershop destination. Throughout the film there is talk of rat currency (from a poem Eric read) and rat protesters crop up throughout the film dangling rats ominously, throwing them at diners in one scene or throwing a giant  Papier-mâché  model onto Eric's Limousine. 

The film is at once ridiculous and poetic, K'Naan plays the sufi rap star Brutha Fez and his ostentatious funeral procession is a hilarious reminder of the ridiculousness of our cult of celebrity. In fact the only time Eric weeps or shows any emotion at all for that that matter is for the deceased rapper. He has Brutha Fez's music playing in one of two elevators in his home which to him makes Brutha Fez godlike.

I admit that I am not a Cronenberg fan and I certainly am not a Pattinson fan either. My sole reason for seeing this film was that it was shot in Toronto. There is a scene in my beloved Lakeview Diner and partial glimpses of the CN Tower lit up at night. Having said that, however, I did enjoy the film. I think Pattinson was well suited to the role and is really convincing as a man without a soul bouncing from one desire to the next like a bored dictator. It is almost as though his increasing self-destruction and violence towards others is meant as a kind of cleansing fire from which he can emerge as an entirely different person. One gets the sense that he is just as repulsed by himself as others are. Juliette Binoche is of course brilliant as Eric's art dealer, as is Samantha Morton who plays his philosophizing chief advisor, and Paul Giamatti as a lunatic former employee determined to kill him. My one criticism as far as acting goes, would be that Sarah Gadon, who plays Erics wife comes across as being a caricature of a spoilt rich girl turned misunderstood poet. I just wonder if there wasn't a less obvious way of playing this character, a way in which we may have actually felt something towards her? 

For Toronto showtimes please click here.