With someone so associated with the grotesque image and body terror as David Cronenbergit is normal to try to do a clear division between his more graphic films and those more earthy and dramatic. This leads to movies like ‘crimes of the future‘ are discussed in terms such as a return to the roots and the “New Flesh” that it has popularized, although really the concept expands beyond surreal gore.
Cronenberg’s evolution towards more contained cinema did not mean a break with that exploration of the body and mind, since these have continued to a greater or lesser extent in the rest of his filmography. All this was possible thanks to the turning point that one of his most fascinating moviesthe tragic and disturbing ‘inseparable‘, which is available for watch on Amazon Prime Video in addition to not the Film y in FlixOlé.
Two bodies. two minds A soul.
Making a free adaptation of the novel ‘Twins’ by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland, which already takes liberties to tell the story of the Marcus brothers, Cronenberg takes us into the story of two prodigies of gynecological medicine. They are both identical twins, both played as adults by Jeremy Ironswhat they are physically indistinguishable although they show different personalities.
Elliott has the captivating charisma, with the gift of people, while Beverly is more introverted and shy, less suitable for social skills. It is because of that they try to distribute the roles well so that both of them can prosper in the world of medicinewith the former carrying out tasks more related to the business and the latter obsessed with research.
But those agreements go even further, sharing customs, tastes, housing and, sometimes, even women and life in twisted games of smoke and mirrors. A game that is certainly less elegant than the one that Cronenberg himself performs to give the sensation of being before two different individuals, although eerily connectedthrough the same face.
‘Inseparable’: indecipherable loves
The work of Irons himself is undoubtedly commendable, whose value has never been in doubt, but the correct development of the narration is a trick as essential as knowing how to configure the shot in order to give the feeling that the two are in scene. Thus the challenge proposed by the film worksand it is neither a loaded melodrama nor an exercise for its main actor to shine.
Cronenberg capitalizes on the reverence and success achieved with films like ‘Videodrome‘ y ‘The fly‘ for expand as much as possible your ideas regarding the evolution of bodies, identity, the transmutation of the mind into a new state and how scientific and technological advances contribute to it. Perhaps it is possible to discuss to what extent its tragic and dramatic character ends up distancing this exploration of the tortured psyche of horror or cinema from genre (although really the tragic and the dramatic already went hand in hand in ‘The Fly’). However, he remains pure Cronenberg in his ideas, which, when properly dissected, end up revealing terrifying realities regarding ourselves. Cinema in its purest form that evidences his figure as an essential author.