eXistenZ

eXistenZ will no doubt have as many fervent advocates as it has detractors. Certainly at the outset, in which Jennifer Jason Leigh is introduced amongst a welter of game-nerd language as Allegra Geller, the designer of a breakthrough virtual reality game called "eXistenZ" only shortly thereafter to be shot by a dude with a gun made of bone and gristle, most people of a normal state of mind will tend to support the latter camp. Nevertheless Cronenberg’s original, self-reflexive script, the quality production design by Carol Spier and the cinematography by Peter Suschitzky keeps one engaged in what turns out to be a well-presented variant on the game-within-a-game concept (of which David Fincher’s suitably titled 1997 film, The Game, is a hyperbolic example),somewhat let-down by a tendency to slip into heavy-handed imagery and a terribly cliché’d ending. That is, of course, leaving aside Cronenberg’s Lynchian penchant for bodily penetration, oozing fluids and squelching internal organs (a resemblance strengthened by Howard Shore’s Angelo Badalamenti-like score).

Cronenberg is an off-beat director with enough standing to pull a strong cast even in minor roles although whilst both Ian Holm and Willem Dafoe have done more than their fair share of fill-in work it’s a surprise to see the admittedly versatile Jennifer Jason Leigh in the lead (she passed on a role in Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut in order to re-shoot scenes for this). Jude Law as her game-partner is adequate but then so would have been a raft of other actors. As a considered vision of the future eXistenZ is a decidedly cautionary tale

 

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