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Cosmopolis poster

CAST
ROBERT PATTINSON
MATHIEU AMALRIC
JULIETTE BINOCHE
KEVIN DURAND
SARAH GADON
PAUL GIAMATTI
EMILY HAMPSHIRE
SAMANTHA MORTON

BASED ON THE NOVEL WRITTEN BY
DON DELILLO

SCREENPLAY BY
DAVID CRONENBERG

PRODUCED BY
PAULO BRANCO
MARTIN KATZ

DIRECTED BY
DAVID CRONENBERG

GENRE
DRAMA

RATED
AUS: MA
UK: 15
USA: R

RUNNING TIME
108 MIN

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MOVIE POSTERS
TRAILERS & CLIPS

COSMOPOLIS (2012)

The need for a haircut begins a pretentious journey into the evils of capitalism, with Cosmopolis featuring all of the nonsensical waffle expected from a David Cronenberg art-house movie.

There is a popular consensus amongst Cronenberg fans that the last decade has seen the Canadian filmmaker lose his way. Yet considering his last four films were A Dangerous Method, Eastern Promises, A History of Violence and Spider – some of the auteurs best work that were consequently not written by him – it’s safe to say that such an opinion is flawed.

Strengthening that statement is Cronenberg’s latest movie Cosmopolis, something of a return to his more experimental features. Based on the novel by Don DeLillo, it is very much a film of the zeitgeist as a 1% wunderkind survives a day from hell while venturing through a 99% “occupy” world in his quest to get a haircut, sheltered within his limousine/office/sanctuary while watching a stream of digitised numbers on a small screen.

Playing said financial wunderkind is Twilight star Robert Pattinson, who continues to impress by taking on roles not expected of a heartthrob leading man. While many would not have betted a pairing of Cronenberg and Pattinson in any lifetime, it makes sense that Cronenberg would cast an actor whose claim to fame is playing a pale, emotionally bereft, soulless creature for that is exactly what Eric Packer is.

In fact every character in Cosmopolis can be described in the same way and that’s the big problem: Cosmopolis is a soulless, confusing, bore of a film, a pretentious message movie where the message itself is lost in dialogue equal to verbal masturbation where big questions are asked, and waffling diatribes are given in response. This film is in dire need of a screenwriter to add some life to a dead dog of a film.

It is clear that Cronenberg wanted to send a message about financial inequality. It’s also clear that Pattinson’s Packer is a portrayal of the super-wealthy detached from reality and any moral centre. Yet more clarity was needed from Cronenberg’s part to make us care either way.

Instead we get a central character that is as enigmatic as he is void of any being. Why is he so important? How did he get so rich? What is it that drives him to do the things he does?

In character and theme, Cosmopolis is as empty a movie as one could find. If soul draining pretention were a currency, Cosmopolis would be going through the roof. For hard-core Cronenberg fans only.

**
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