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Plot Summary: Humans adapt to a synthetic environment, with new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice, Saul Tenser, celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances.

Director: David Cronenberg

Writer: David Cronenberg

Runtime: 1 hour 47 mins

Main Cast:

• Léa Seydoux as Caprice
• Kristen Stewart as Timlin
• Viggo Mortensen as Saul Tenser
• Scott Speedman as Lang Dotrice

Review by: Sam

Full disclosure, I went into this film ready to not like it. I am a fan of David Cronenberg (“A History of Violence” often comes off of my Blu-ray shelf), but the trailers, previews, and director’s own admission that he expected people would walk out on it made me less than enthused to see this. So, I do consider it a plus that while the film was on-screen, I was not bored or turned off, but was actually interested in what was happening in this world.

What I Liked:

We are thrown into the (far) future where humans have evolved to the point where they are growing new organs and most people can no longer feel pain. The conflict in this movie comes from the struggle between those ready to accept the next stages of evolution and those not willing to give in to it as they fear it will lead to a world where humans, as we know them, no longer exist.

This is further complicated by our main character, Saul Tensor (portrayed by Viggo Mortensen) who is an icon in the pro-evolution world. Tensor is a performance artist who, with his partner Caprice (portrayed by Lea Seydoux), holds viewings of his newly developed organs being removed. In practice he is pro-evolution, but in actuality he is anti-evolution and believes that humanity is moving in the wrong direction by accepting the changes to the body. This makes for quite the interesting dichotomy as we see Tensor work in secret against evolution while at the same time making his living off of it.

Viggo Mortensen is fantastic as always. Tensor’s every line is delivered as a man pain; and the suffering he experiences as these new organs come to existence is palpable. He is the standout in the cast, though there isn’t any performance that is truly “bad.”

What I Didn’t Like:

The main thing that turned me off to this movie is not the body mutilation- it is the plot. I mentioned the world is interesting, but it is equally frustrating. I’m not a fan of exposition dumps but this movie seems to constantly start explaining something and then leaves it dangling. This led to MANY open plot threads throughout the runtime that ultimately weren’t answered. For example, we understand the something happened in the world to cause 1) the sudden evolution and 2) the anti0evolution movement, but each time it’s discussed the conversation changes. It also doesn’t help that, despite there being a full fantastical world we could have explored, we are basically confined to one corner of a city for almost the entire run time.

The film was basically a series of let-downs. The overall struggle between the two sides never actually reaches a climax so we as the audience are left feeling unfulfilled as in the end this plot point remains in the same place it was at the beginning. Additionally, there are multiple small plot points- such as random assassinations- that you wait to understand, to no avail. And, the movie’s ending scene- awful.