There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness. - Frank Capra
One of the greatest things about the human race is our vastly different set of tastes and opinions. One viewer may hail a film as a modern masterpiece, whilst another may consider it to be the epitome of dullness. 'Cosmopolis' is one of the latest films that splits audiences into having extreme opinions on it: some find that it is a refreshingly intellectual change to the usual predictable plots that we are so often faced with, others deem it to be a pretentious and incoherent film that had no right gaining funding.
Sadly, I'm agreeing more with the second statement than I am the first.
A billionaire named Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) rides around the streets of Manhattan in his limo, attempting to get a hair-cut. This proves difficult due to a presidential visit and rat-wielding protestors.
I'm not sure if much happened after that, from reading others reviews, I'm guessing not an awful lot. Some love 'Cosmopolis', but both my friend and I deemed it unwatchable. The script was a relentless blast of pretentious monologue after pretentious monologue. The character's complex thoughts on life, death and money could have been interesting if there was a pause in between each of these speeches, but as they were disguised as dialogue, the viewers weren't given any time to digest these thoughts. It was 100% of your concentration or nothing.
There was very little action to draw away from this dialogue-laden script. Actually, the most exciting it got in the hour that we endured was when a protester threw a rat in a diner. Or possibly when Packer got his prostate checked. The rest? Packer having conversations with other characters.
Of course, this means that Eric Packer is in literally every scene. So how does the lead Robert Pattinson cope with the role? Surprisingly well. The character have him nearly nothing to work with, seeing as he was completely one-dimensional and approached the outside world with almost absolute apathy.
Cronenberg's directing was intriguing, even the most mundane of conversations being shot in an unconventional way, making the film visually interesting. There's nothing else interesting about it sadly, but, hey, at least there's something.
I wouldn't consider myself to be an idiot, but I felt unbelievably stupid whilst watching this film. The dialogue flatly came out of the cast's mouth like some sort of modern-day Shakespearean monologue. It felt like a play, that was being acted out on the big-screen. I literally couldn't take another second of it... neither could the other three of the four member strong audience, with us all swiftly exiting the cinema before the film was half over with.
If the only cardinal sin of cinema is being dull, then the cast and crew better get down on their knees and pray for forgiveness.
