eXistenZ (1999)
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
Written & Directed by: David Cronenberg
Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm, Don McKellar, Christopher Eccleston, Sarah Polley
Runtime: 97 min
Rating: R
Trailer
A more mature and surreal version of The Matrix is one way to describe David Cronenberg’s stylish eXintenZ, a quirky science fiction film that is less The Fly and more Videodrome. Unlike The Matrix, eXistenZ often relies on subtle performances and atmosphere, not showy grand-standing action to tell a story of technology’s constant ability to blur the line between reality and fiction. A brilliant game engineer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a morose performance that is unlike most of her roles) presents her latest virtual reality game to a crowd of rabid fans eager to experience a virtual reality simulation. At the demonstration, an assassination attempt by an anti-gaming faction called “the realists” on Allegra is thwarted and she escapes with corporate assistant Ted Pikul (Jude Law). And before you can say “Whoa”, Allegra and Ted must maneuver between the real world and the game world in order to understand the conspiracy and the reason why Allegra has a price on her head. Cronenberg is a master at making an audience uncomfortable, and here he succeeds again. He shoots most of the film in a cold blue light that hints at the superficial nature of the environment, and his use of close-ups when showing how the game pods work is a test to how far he can push audience tolerance to the idea of being physically violated, especially considering that the pods connect through a small hole at the base of the spine, and the game pod itself resembles a deformed pink fetus. Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm and a host of secondary characters round out the cast to provide a compliment of differing acting styles. The problem is that because the audience is never really meant to know whether or not the characters are in the game world or the real world, there’s a trace of suspicion in almost every scene that is usually never paid off and gives the film an air of aimless wandering. There are some interesting aspects though: certain characters stand around waiting for Allegra and Ted to say or do something that will propel the plot of the game, and give the characters their true purpose; if you’re a fan of those old computer games, you’ll relate to this existential crisis right away. Even though Cronenberg has made a stylish science fiction thriller that is at times entertaining, it is ultimately not as clever as it thinks it is.
Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006
