Dead Ringers (1988)

Director: David Cronenberg
Writer(s): Cronenberg and Norman Snider, from the novel "Twins" by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland
Starring: Jeremy Irons (x2), Geneviève Bujold, and Heidi von Palaske

The back cover of the Dead Ringers DVD had me thinking that 1980s David Cronenberg went and made a “normal” movie; the way it sounds, twin brothers, (Elliot and Beverly Mantle), who are both gynecologists, fall in love with the same woman, thus sparking the deterioration of their once-close relationship.  Many films have been done with themes like this, and I didn’t really have high hopes.  I must admit to being thankful that the studio’s synopsis is rather misleading, and so a movie that I thought I could figure out going in left me guessing what was going to happen next, often to no avail.

The reality here is that one of the twins (Beverly) does fall in love with a woman (actress Claire Niveau, played by actress Genevieve Bujold).  As is par for the course between these two, Elliott, who has always been the dominant one, had sex with her first, makes plans to see her again, and then sends Beverly on the ensuing dates, until he also gets his fill.  The hapless victims never tend to notice, until Niveau is alerted to the twins’ behavior from a friend.  The basic outline sounds kind of like a Hallmark movie, though if you think Beverly begs for forgiveness, earns back her trust, and they live happily ever after, you would be sadly mistaken.  Actually, if you even think this movie has much to do with a woman at all, you would also be missing the mark.

The twins are both played by a single Jeremy Irons, who is unbelievable in both roles.  I would think that the toughest part of assuming two characters would be giving them each their own identity, but Irons gets it down in such a fantastic way that soon, even though they look almost exactly the same, you’ll be able to tell which is which just from their mannerisms, or their personality.  Not that I would expect anything less from him; at his peak, he was one of Hollywood’s most consistently mind-blowing actors, portraying everything from “Die Hard” villains, to Humbert Humbert himself.  Here, though, he doesn’t just put on a performance; he puts on an absolute clinic.  If you don’t believe me, just watch the final thirty minutes, when not just one, but both of his characters go completely off the deep end.  It would have been easy to overact those scenes, but he hits it with such authenticity that it’s almost terrifying.

Also impressive is David Cronenberg’s restraint:  For a man who essentially built his reputation on excess and “body horror”, there are very few gross visual effects throughout the entire movie.  While this will no doubt disappoint some (as it did me upon my first viewing), it still provides some unsettling scenes, mainly courtesy of some custom-made, and threatening-looking, gynecology instruments.  Yet even beyond these scenes, there’s a certain uneasiness that runs underneath each frame, slowly building until its gripping finale.

I hate to admit it, but I will:  I have an incredibly short attention span, and any movie that’s made up of mostly dialogue for two hours is very tough for me to get through (pretty sure it’s ADHD, but you have to jump through so many hoops just to get diagnosed for that, that it’s not really worth it).  But Dead Ringers managed to hold my attention, especially in the final hour (where I’m more prone to dozing off).  The surefire, confident direction of Cronenberg, as well as the solid writing (by Cronenberg and Norman Snider) certainly helped, but it all comes back to Irons, who steals the scene in every one he’s in. 

It’s far from a perfect film:  I thought Bujold’s performance was hit-or-miss, and even question if her character was necessary in the first place, while the twins’ gradual spiral into madness does tend to get a little more predictable as the film goes on (if you can’t see the ending coming, you haven’t been paying attention).  But if you’re looking for a more subtle “horror” movie, Dead Ringers could be for you.  It doesn’t have any haunted rooms, or masked madmen on the prowl, but its effectiveness lies in its chilling realism of two brothers, almost exact in appearance, but vastly different in personality, who nevertheless are destined to share the same fate.

RECAP: Great writing, solid direction, and an out-of-this-world performance are the cornerstones of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers.  It’s far from a perfect film, but if you’re looking for a more subtle brand of horror than your typical blood and guts slasher film, then this could be a welcome change from the norm; this is horror for the thinking man, and that’s not something you can say for many films in the genre.

SCORE: 7.5/10

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