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Dead Ringers
20th Century Fox


8.0

based on 15 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 12 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R

Starring Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske, Barbara Gordon, Shirley Douglas, and Stephen Lack

The chilling story of identical twin gynecologists--suave Elliot and sensitive Beverly, bipolar sides of one personality--who share the same practice, the same apartment, the same women. When a new patient, glamorous actress Claire Niveau, challenges their eerie bond, they descend into a whirlpool of sexual confusion, drugs, and madness. Jeremy Irons' tour-de-force performance--as both twinsraises disturbing questions about the nature of personal identity. (Criterion Collection)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Bari Wood (novel Twins) Jack Geasland (novel Twins) David Cronenberg Norman Snider
DIRECTED BY:	David Cronenberg
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 29, 1998 Video: September 23, 1997 Theatrical: September 23, 1988
RUNNING TIME:	115 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

USA Today Mike Clark

An instant classic, an Oscar-worthy showcase for Jeremy Irons, and a tightrope ballet over dicey screen material… A subtle movie - and thus a disturbing one. Like “Vertigo,” “The Night of the Hunter,” “Repulsion” and a few others, it finds beauty in morbidity - then nags you to come back for a second dose. [23 Sept 1988]

100

Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson

To think of a film this assured, this unified and this dizzyingly potent, you have to go back to "Blue Velvet." [22 Sept 1988]

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

For those who enjoy cinematic visits to other, darker worlds, this blood's for you. Watching Ringers is not unlike watching a critical operation -- unnerving but also enthralling. [23 Sept 1988]

100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

David Cronenberg's gelid masterpiece.

100

Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not Credited)

A masterpiece.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

An astonishing tour de force--especially for Irons, whose sense of nuance is so refined that one can tell in a matter of seconds which twin he is playing in a particular scene.

TV Guide Staff (Non Credited)

Quietly devastating... Extremely unsettling, at times amusing, cold yet personal, Dead Ringers gradually and deliberately comes to horrify the viewer, rather than shocking outright.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

What makes the performance(s) even better is that Mr. Irons invests these bizarre, potentially freakish characters with so much intelligence and so much real feeling. [23 Sept 1988, p.C10]

Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr

It's almost too rich in ideas for its own good: The sense of concentration and proportion isn't there. But it remains an astonishing, magnetic, devastating piece of work. [23 Sept 1988]

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

Cronenberg handles his usual fondness for gore in muted style.

Time Richard Corliss

At times Dead Ringers also tilts out of coherence, with scenes that are dramatically stillborn. But Irons is splendid in both roles, and Cronenberg can create tour-de-force tableaux with his effortless black magic. [26 Sept 1988]

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

A little abhorrent yet strangely appealing. I found it arty and pretentious, but still couldn't turn my eyes away from its almost hypnotic coolness and fascinating psychological horrors. [23 Sept 1988]

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The movie is really almost tasteful considering [Cronenberg’s] stomach-churning capacities. He always does it for a higher purpose, though, which is why his films sometimes win wider audiences. This one probably won't cross over, because it's too queasy. [23 Sept 1988]

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The secret may be that Cronenberg approaches his trashy material with the objectivity of a scientist; it is his detached, cold style that makes the material creepy instead of simply sensational.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Is this misogyny, as some insist, or a critique of misogyny, as others say? Many moviegoers, grossed out by the film's gothic approach to medical matters, won't watch long enough to find out which is the answer. [30 Sept 1988]

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mr J gave it a9:
Captivating and depressing in the best way. So sad, you can feel the heartbreak of the brothers, and the sadness is that the heartbreak is for each other, and not the girl. Astonishing, beautiful, sad, brilliant.

D&K H. gave it a3:
Nothing was great about this movie. It did not "pull me in".

Austin C. gave it a10:
Captiating from the opening score, the movie is a masterpiece.

Yuri H.A. gave it a 10:
Again : one of the all-time cinema classics. Irons perfect acting + good music + sometimes perfect photography and heart depressive plot ... it's more than twins taking drugs, this movie makes you feel just as the twins are supposed to feel through their downward spiral...and their end.

Pat C. gave it an 8:
Such impromptu examinations of the unexpected are one of a shrinking list of reasons to not outlaw the film industry.

Billy O. gave it a 6:
It was very strange and interesting but there wasn't much plot. Nothing happened. The brothers had sex with the same girl and they then both became drug addicts. That is about the entire movie.

Yoon C. gave it an 8:
Strange and impenetrable but fascinating as filmic exercise nevertheless. Genuinely unnerving and perhaps Cronenberg's most formidable achievement at least in mood.

Dead Ringers 20th Century Fox

Dead Ringers
20th Century Fox