Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

GazerRise Fantastic!

jpdhadfield i caught this on telly, luckily i could record it,as it quite long and dull, i was intrigued, but not enough to watch it in one sitting, long expanses of nothing happening, which maybe true of most mentally ill people, but very boring to watch, the twist at the end, explains it all, but not enough to bother watching it.The acting is good, and Fiennes plays mad very well, and we've all seen people like this in town, muttering to themselves, spoiler alert, im not sure about the halfway house, as its supposed to be nowadays, but it looked very 1970's as health and safety would never allow a home like that,and building sites in the passed didn't have mesh fencing around them, i wouldn't recommend this film to anybody ,unless they liked film noir,reminded me of Swedish films on bbc 2, years ago,

Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) Spider is a fascinating story of a mentally ill man, released to a halfway house from a sanatorium, who attempts to piece together the events that led to his lengthy hospital stay. Along the way, reality and his memories clash, blend, and intertwine.At first, Spider (Ralph Fiennes) does not seem to be a prime candidate for release from a mental hospital. He speaks in tremulous mumbles, has a hunched-over limp, and frequently eyes the ground for items of interest. He takes up residence in a dilapidated group home run by the tyrannical Mrs. Wilkinson (Lynn Redgrave) and makes tentative friends with some of the residents, notably Terrence (John Neville).Spider has a small suitcase containing memories from his childhood and a journal in which he records his investigations into his past - in the sort of indecipherable scribble that even ancient Babylonians would consider illegible. Or maybe it was shorthand. Either way, Joe Viewer won't be able to read it.He flashes back to his days living with his doting mother (Miranda Richardson) and loutish father (Gabriel Byrne). Little Spider, who seems different somehow, looks to be more of an obstacle to his father, who frequently needs "rescuing" from the local pub around dinner time. His father's lifestyle and mother's lack of empowerment lead to a short sequence of events that ends in tragedy, something the viewer only learns late in the film.But the mystery of Spider's past is only part of the story. Cronenberg deftly moves between the past and present; in many scenes, grown-up Spider watches events involving his younger self, at least the way he remembered it. The temporal fugue allows Spider a new perspective on his past and fills in gaps in his memories. But it's really a test of his own mental faculties: after facing up to what happened all of those years ago, is he truly ready for society? Why is he in a halfway house? Why this one in particular? Fiennes is aces, as is Richardson in a dual role. I loved seeing John Neville, if only in a few scenes, and even Gabriel Byrne does an okay job. That's not easy for Gabriel Byrne.

Matt Kony This is the kind of movie some apathetic Professor at a community college somewhere in the American Midwest might allow his Psychology 101 class to watch on the Friday before Spring Break. (possibly with a short multiple choice exam at the end, to make sure everyone was paying attention) Which isn't to say it's a bad movie. Some might find it boring. To me, it was interesting. But more than anything, it's educational. There is hardly any plot. So I feel I must analyze how a movie with no plot can be interesting: Not long after being introduced to the strange character 'Spider,' we start to wonder, "what in the hell happened to make him so... you know... awkward?" We experience flashback after flashback, as he puzzles out his tragic childhood while sitting down in a local café drinking very sugary coffee, or at a community garden near the freeway, writhing in the dirt between rows of tomato plants. We feel progressively saddened and perplexed as the memories progress.Another source of suspense: after Spider starts to get on the "Tyrant Queen" of the boardinghouse's bad side. What will happen when she finds out Spider stole her keys? When she finds out he has been keeping possible contraband items, like dirty photographs and a cryptographic journal? Not to mention the poor fellow who rattles on about Africa. A DARK CONTINTENT. WHERE A MAN CANNOT PUT HIS FOOT INTO THE TOE OF HIS BOOT WITHOUT THE FEAR OF BEING STUNG BY A SCORPION. A SLOW DEATH. 18 HOURS. (Sorry, I loved that part.) What's going to happen to him?***SPOILER ALERT***This movie gets away with being fairly 'boring' because it is, fundamentally, a case study on Schizophrenia- Specifically, the Capgras delusion, in which a person comes to believe that a close friend or family member has been replaced by an impostor. Ralph Fiennes does a pretty good job acting like one of those 'crazy' homeless people you see in a big city shuffling & mumbling down the sidewalk. He smokes roll your own cigarettes. He drinks way too much coffee. At the boarding house, he gets frustrated at puzzle of a seagull and scattering all the pieces across the rec room floor. Probably most of us were like, "I know that guy! He was outside Starbucks the other day asking me for change!"Those people are interesting, because we don't understand them, which makes this movie interesting.This movie, which follows Spider's point of view as he drifts in and out of memories and delusions, does a pretty good job of recreating what a schizophrenic person's thought process MIGHT be like.So now we know what it might like to be Schizophrenic. And we ask ourselves, Oh no, what if I'm Schizophrenic, but I don't know it yet? And then we spend the next half hour pacing around our apartment worrying, piecing together our childhoods.It's a pretty good movie.

Lantzet * A stunning psychological thriller, with very unexpected turns, like in true thriller. However, the film avoids the horror trap, where the shocking scenes are the film's objective in itself. There are no such scenes in this film. * Though a thriller, yet not intended to be only that. Instead, it is an almost clinical, cold description of a schizophrenic. One almost feels what it is like to be a schizophrenic. This was so expressive that I had dreams the night after I saw the film, which I seldom have. * The film shows a deep human tragedy of the main character. However, it does not fall into the trap: "that poor mentally-disturbed human and that inhuman society which treats him as ... mentally-disturbed". * Summing up: - A brilliant thriller with a psychological depth, or rather a drama in a thriller setting. - But neither masterpiece of thriller nor masterpiece of drama. - With superb acting (R. Fiennes - main character) and direction (D. Cronenberg). - Leaves a deep, long-lasting impression and many questions to think about. - I could watch this film once more after some time.