I'm writing this review of David Cronenberg's new movie Cosmopolis as a big Don DeLillo fan who has not actually read Cosmopolis. So I can't say whether Cronenberg's adaptation stayed true to this particular DeLillo, but the experience of watching the film was very much like ingesting a DeLillo novel in one short sitting. And I loved it.
No matter how intelligent you are, Cosmopolis will leave you feeling like you're not quite smart enough to fully understand what you just saw. You're better off knowing that going in. You may not be exactly sure where the plot is heading. The dialogue is so dense that you'll feel like you need a good five minutes to think on certain lines, but so snappy and quick that the only way to comprehend it is to absorb it as a whole.
If you're not already too turned off (box office history suggests that you probably are), you'll be happy to know that Cosmopolis fits few of Hollywood's tired molds, doesn't follow Hollywood's formulaic plot arc, but still manages a big pay off in the end. Robert Pattinson, America's favorite vampire/cockold, is a perfect (if counter-intuitive) choice to play the film's unsympathetic protagonist Eric Packer, a young bazillionaire financier/trader who loses his fortune and mind over the course of a day. Three or four other characters besides Packer will haunt you in ways you can't put your finger on.
As we follow Packer through his day, ostensibly with the lone goal of getting a haircut, we see one DeLillo trope after another. Lasting images. Stylized speech that cracks with black humor. Deep theoretical attention to the particular issues of the day: global economies, the "foully rich," and wealth disparity. Plus, of course, the DeLillo hallmark: uncanny prescience into the future.
Though DeLillo's novel was written in 2003, it includes an Occupy Wall Street doppelganger. The movie, too, takes on unintended significance to the precise time we're in: Cosmopolis contains DeLillo's classic "lone gunman" character -- the one who sits plotting in a room with the intent of ascribing meaning to his life by rewriting history through a singular act of violence.
And in case you haven't been following the news lately, we've had a rash of lone gunman carrying out mass shootings.
The biggest problem with the movie is that it isn't a book, a sin for which Cronenberg can be forgiven. You'll feel the need to stop and think, but you can't or you'll miss the next thing coming. And you can't re-read the passage that demands to be read three times over, or write down the best bits of dialogue. You'll have to rely on a gradual accumulation of understanding. There's something to be said for this.
Plus, you can always go back and read the book. Which I'll be doing shortly. In the meantime, here's four quotes (that appear in both the book and movie) to chew on:
- "Money has lost its narrative quality the way painting did once upon a time. Money is talking to itself."
- "It is the violent act that makes history and changes everything that came before."
- "A person rises on a word and falls on a syllable."
- "Talent is more erotic when it's wasted."
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