I didn't think I would ever admit this, but David Cronenberg has found the perfect use for Robert Pattinson in Cosmopolis (2012). The crooked grin that reveals a fang that will forever betray the role that made him famous, the pale face with a hint of peachy pinkness so inappropriate for such harshly delineated bone structure, the ability of his nose to crinkle disgustedly as if he smells something funny while no one else does – all these invaluable talents of Pattinson’s work great to create the character of the abominable Eric Packer. Hats off to the director. He finally found some use for new Hollywood blood.
Trendy Fiction and Spiritual Rot
Cronenberg, famous for taking on unfilmable novels and turning them into somewhat watchable films, tackles Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name here, and retells it cinematically, almost word for word (unlike the new Total Recall, another adaptation of literary dystopia in theatres now). David Cronenberg, who is usually interested in bodily horror, is more focused on bodily functions here, showing Eric Packer having sex, eating, urinating, drinking, etc. If his previous efforts were studies of corporal degeneration, Cosmopolis is a similar study of spiritual rotting, or at least that’s what the director wants us to think.
Eric the Great
Eric Packer (Pattinson) loves his clothes, computer screens, information charts and naked women, as the Cosmopolis trailer suggests. He is pink cheeked in one frame and pale of face in the next, but always handsome. On his way to a barber (who is more than a barber, of course) on a day when no one should be on their way anywhere unless they need urgent medical attention, he has numerous meetings with his chief of technology (Jay Baruchel), currency analyst (Philip Nozuka), his lover/art adviser (Juliette Binoche), and a substitute doctor who casually examines his prostate while he chats away with his finance chief (Emily Hampshire), a sweaty single mom snapped out of a jogging session (and that’s on her bloody day off!). This is how normal Eric Parker’s life is.
The Beautiful Background
Eric’s wife Elise (Sarah Gadon), a very wealthy poet, is strangely around a bit too frequently for a person allegedly elusive and secretive. Eric says he never sees her, complaining they don’t bond enough, yet they bump into each other all the time. She doesn’t want to have sex because she needs energy (I wonder if Freud’s fans are aware that it’s 2012). They are newlyweds, yet she says that it is already over. Her strange character fits right into Howard Shore’s foreboding score, just as quiet yet uncomfortable as a rumbling stomach.
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