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Spider
Sony Pictures Classics
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for sexuality, brief violence and language
Starring
Ralph Fiennes,
Miranda Richardson,
Gabriel Byrne,
Bradley Hall,
Lynn Redgrave,
John Neville,
Gary Reineke,
and
Philip Craig
A psychological thriller about a man (Fiennes) trying to piece his life back together after his premature release from a mental institution.
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
David Cronenberg
Patrick McGrath (also novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
David Cronenberg
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: July 29, 2003
Video: July 29, 2003
Theatrical: December 20, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
98 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
France / Canada / UK |
Best Canadian Feature Film, 2002 Toronto International Film Festival
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
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
In this small and very smart film, Cronenberg does several things at once and makes them all look effortless, capturing various shadings of consciousness and versions of reality.
100
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Arguably the subtlest, most carefully textured film of Cronenberg's career.
100
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Spider lasts in the mind and it's built to last -- this is a movie that invites and repays repeated viewings.
91
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Exciting spectacle of a master director reining in his abilities to create a work that is etched in acid, burnished in smoke.
90
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
His story is sad, compelling and morbidly, tragically watchable.
90
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The most elegantly crafted and confidently directed of all his (Cronenberg's) films, it's a calm, chilling portrait of a blighted soul and, just as calmly but quite stunningly, an evocation of the thought processes behind the blight.
90
Dallas Observer
Bill Gallo
It takes an especially fine-tuned director and an inventive actor to cut as close to the bone as Spider does.
90
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Spider is not a pulse-quickening experience, but Fiennes's art makes it engrossing.
90
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
In an instance of director, stars and material melding flawlessly, Spider is a brilliantly realized depiction of a mentally ill individual.
90
Variety
David Rooney
This slow but brilliantly sustained journey into madness is fronted by a remarkable performance from Ralph Fiennes and superb backup from Miranda Richardson in a triple role.
90
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
I was floored by Cronenberg's mastery of the material. Fiennes gives one of his finest performances; Miranda Richardson, playing at least three characters in the protagonist's twisted vision, is no less impressive.
90
Newsweek
David Ansen
The superbly acted Spider is muted in comparison: it’s a quiet nightmare, painted in hospital greens and rust browns.
90
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Deliciously wicked, strangely poetic portrait (adapted by Patrick McGrath from his own novel) of a schizophrenic man at once tyrannized and elevated by oedipal terrors.
88
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
It's Cronenberg's finest film, it's star Ralph Fiennes's riskiest role, it's a tour de force for actress Miranda Richardson.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
What catches us in Spider's web -- besides the indelible performances of Fiennes and Richardson -- is the director's sympathy with this freak man-child who struggles to order his confused memories into a kind of truth.
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
This is a rare adaptation where the script (by McGrath himself) heads straight for the novel's horrible essence, reproducing it non-verbally and in an even more concentrated form.
88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A shocker for devotees of stylish angst and psychological torment. You'll have to watch it with patience and great attention, but it richly rewards that patience.
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Cronenberg's most disciplined exploration yet of that shadowy realm: the world refracted through the prism of a schizophrenic mind.
80
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
It isn't likely to drive anybody out of the theater -- although getting people out of the house to see a meticulous, minimalist study of madness and memory may be another story.
80
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
An eensy-weensy movie sustained by two utterly gigantic performances.
80
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Brilliantly realized but bone-chillingly bleak.
80
Film Threat
Darrin Keene
This is the film that "Shine" and A Beautiful Mind could not be, a story about schizophrenia that doesn’t neatly resolve its complex subject matter.
80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Were he only trying to remark on that world's creepiness, Cronenberg would still succeed brilliantly, if coldly, but his sympathy makes the film.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Cronenberg’s nonlinear narrative is trying at times – it keeps you nearly as off-kilter as the characters, and surely that’s intentional – but as a character piece about madness and stymied dreams, it’s remarkably realistic.
75
USA Today
Mike Clark
This is the kind of well-made movie you wish well but you don't particularly wish to see again.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The details of the film and of the performances are meticulously realized; there is a reward in seeing artists working so well. But the story has no entry or exit, and is cold, sad and hopeless. Afterward, I feel more admiration than gratitude.
75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
A cat's cradle of creepy childhood memory oozing unreliably from the mind of an aging, desiccated, paranoid schizophrenic, played quite amazingly by a mumbling, stooped, shifty-eyed Ralph Fiennes.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Fiennes' very skin participates in the project -- his fingernails are nicotine-stained the color of tea bags. The performance works; it's a ballet, a concerto of big, big Acting.
75
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
If you have the patience, its almost endless silences and extremely slow pacing eventually pay off.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
This superbly realized, clammy and unsettling movie doesn't hinge on plot. Claustrophobic and profoundly creepy, Spider isn't a pleasant viewing experience, and that's the point.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Spider is a difficult film, but an inspired one, the movie equivalent of eating a meal of artfully prepared eel or sea urchin. It's for those with adventurous tastes and no fear of squishy textures.
70
Slate
David Edelstein
The inner life of the young Spider is just screaming to be taken to the next level--but Cronenberg mulishly won't go there. What goes wrong with Spider is pretty basic: The audience has no idea why it was made.
70
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
A kind of psychological whodunit, but without the thrills. The clue-making is rather desultory, as if Cronenberg were indulging a narrative strategy he didn’t really care for.
70
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Its minutely detailed revelations work their way under the skin like slivers of glass.
50
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Spider as a character is a fantasizing detective, but the movie is no Singing Detective (the high-water mark of the sub-genre). This film rarely rises above a murmur.
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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