Thursday, October 24, 2013

Dead Ringers (1988)


Brilliant twin gynecologists (Jeremy Irons) descend into madness. Need I say more? OK. It's directed by David Cronenberg. Now go, watch!

*      *      *

We’ve seen this story before. It always begins at the end and usually with an eye-catching headline. It begins with a tragedy and then moves backwards to fill in the gaps, to chronicle each step of the slow descent into madness. How did things ever get this bad? You can theorize and hypothesize as much as you want, you’ll never really find the answer. No matter how deep you dig you will never really know. Whether it is fiction like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? or reportage like the “Golden Suicides” of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, there is always an X factor. The easy answer is to blame bad brain chemistry, the scarier thought is realizing that the potential to do grievous harm to ourselves and others lies within each of us. The brain is an imperfect machine. There is always the potential for a glitch. No matter how many vitamins you take or vaccinations you decline, there is absolutely no way to ensure that you won’t find yourself the focus of next week’s news cycle. We shiver in horror because deep, down, inside, we know that could be us.

No comments:

Post a Comment