Filmmakers have long endeavored to give us a glimpse into the minds of those suffering from serious mental illness. The 2003 release Spider once again takes us down this road. Where other films either offer a protagonist with reasonable communication skills (A Beautiful Mind) or provide a conduit through which to relate to the affected character (Rainman), Spider plunks us right into the mysterious mind of Dennis Cleg (Ralph Fiennes) and forces us to try and make sense of what he experiences.

We first encounter Dennis (aka Spider) as he gets off a train. Many others disembark before him - purposeful, chattering people with goals and direction. Then we meet Spider. Disheveled and hesitant, he exits with extreme caution and visible trepidation. He mumbles a bit, none of it intelligible. He does have a place he needs to go. But he has none of the confident stride of those around him. He shuffles, mutters, stops frequently to check on one thing or another, eventually making his way to his destination. He’s met by the brusk Mrs. Wilkinson (Lynn Redgrave), who ushers him rather abruptly into what we come to see is a sort of halfway house. It seems that Spider has recently left an institution of some type.

As he settles in (if you could call it that), Spider continues to mumble and mutter, only occasionally producing an intelligible utterance. At first we wait for him to begin speaking, only gradually understanding that he simply isn’t going to. This is Spider, take it or leave it. He’s tense, paranoid, and uncommunicative and carries with him a massive bundle of peculiarities. This is our protagonist. Our job here is to go along on his singularly muddled search for his past. Not that we necessarily understand why he’s looking for it, for he is unable to articulate that, but we’re along for the ride.

Spider begins his new life by wandering the streets, finding places from his old life. It is at this point that we begin to become a part of Spider’s world. He starts envisioning his past, and everything from here on out is a giant puzzle. Is what we are seeing hallucination, memory, real? We don’t know, any more than he does. At times he’s clearly “remembering” things to which he cannot possibly have been witness, but does this make the memories false, or not? The only thing that is clear is that he is desperately trying, within his own limitations, to reconstruct his past.

Spider is an amazing character. He’s confused and confusing. Writer (of both the screenplay and the novel) Patrick McGrath and director David Cronenberg have taken the remarkable step of not trying to make Spider into a person to whom we can relate. They let him be, rumpled and stained, with his muttering, enigmatic scribbling and erratic ways, leaving the onus of comprehension on the viewer. Nothing about this man is spelled out. We must read the signs, decipher the clues, and try and keep up with this mind so different from those we normally encounter in film. In fact, the entire story revolves around how we simply can’t relate to this man in a conventional way. We have to see his life through his own eyes. By forcing the audience into the mind of Spider, the filmmakers have provided what is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing looks at mental illness to come along in some time.

One thing that helps ground the film and keeps it from becoming completely indecipherable is the inclusion of the supporting characters. Mrs. Wilkinson is as pragmatic as they get, lending Spider’s life a touch of reality. The characters of his father (Gabriel Byrne), mother (Miranda Richardson) and the young Spider (Bradley Hall), though seen through the looking glass of Spider’s mind, are also somewhat coherent – at least within the context in which we meet them. Another resident of the halfway house, Terrence (John Neville) acts as something of a middle ground between the mumbling Spider and the brisk Mrs. Wilkinson. It is Terrence who fills in some of the information gaps about Spider’s current situation.

This is a magnificent performance by Ralph Fiennes. From information in the DVD extras, it seems that Fiennes committed to this part before the movie had a director or financial backing. And he makes Spider his own. From the horribly nicotine stained fingers, to the disheveled, shuffling, mumbling countenance, Fiennes never breaks out of character. He speaks almost no lines, yet manages to convey an amazing array of emotion within that limited framework. Body movement indicating discomfort or indecision. Facial expression showing paranoia, rage, sorrow and indignation. And always his eyes revealing layer upon layer of confusion and tension. He manages to be the absolute, indisputable center of this story. Remarkable considering that he’s the only one who never speaks, and is quite often lurking in the background as the story unfolds. But somehow, through sheer presence, Fiennes maintains hold over the character and the movie. You never once forget whose story this is, or whose mind you’re in.

Some of the supporting performances are outstanding as well. Gabriel Byrne walks a fine line as Spider’s father. We never really know what is real and what is not, so his character has some inconsistencies that we don’t understand for a long while. Yet Byrne manages to make a full character out of this collection of fragmented memories. Miranda Richardson has possibly the most demanding role besides that of Spider. She plays multiple women, all very, very different. She does this so well that we don’t even realize it until well into the film. Lynn Redgrave is solid as the unyielding Mrs. Wilkinson, but her character is minor and she has little to work with.

The one quibble I have with Spider is that the pacing is slow. Some of this is deliberate, and necessary. Spider is a slow moving man. But the entire movie moving at the speed of Spider gets a little bit wearing. The score (Howard Shore) accentuates this problem. While it does a good job of supporting the tension in the film, it is simply too slow. The combination makes the film a little more plodding than it needs to be. Not a major flaw, to be sure, but something to be aware of.

Spider is a story within a story within an illness. It’s weaving and twisting serve both to give the tale tension and suspense as well as give us a peek into the mind of this very disturbed man. This is an immensely complex task to undertake, and Cronenberg should be applauded for both his skillful direction, and his willingness to let Fiennes create Spider more or less out of whole cloth. Cronenberg really shakes off the veil of the gore meister, splendidly showcasing a far greater depth and range of talent than his early reputation would have us believe. And Fiennes should be applauded for becoming Spider with such amazing success. This isn’t your everyday portrait of mental illness. It is a film that immerses you in the mind of a baffling, baffled man, and dares you to either sink or swim. It is a film that wants you to take this ride, but only if you’re willing to do so in an unconventional way. By choosing this route, Spider becomes a far stronger and more intriguing movie. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a film that challenges perception, truth and memory, as well as an intensely personal look at mental illness.







*DVD extras include director’s commentary, three individual featurettes (“In the Beginning: How Spider Came to Be” – which is where you learn about Fiennes’ role in launching the project), “Caught in the Spider’s Web – The Cast”, and a “Making Of…” piece), as well as trailers and filmographies. This is one movie where I wish I had had the time to watch all the extras, the bits I did watch were fascinating.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD