Spider (2002)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 130
Fresh: 111 | Rotten: 19
Ralph Fiennes is brilliant in this accomplished and haunting David Cronenberg film.
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 4
Ralph Fiennes is brilliant in this accomplished and haunting David Cronenberg film.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 20,169
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Movie Info
Ralph Fiennes plays a grown man haunted by his childhood in David Cronenberg's stylized psychological drama Spider. Upon his release from a mental institution, Spider (Fiennes) takes up residence in a halfway house. Paranoid, quiet, and forever making notes, Spider spends much of the film remembering scenes from his youth, specifically a horrific event from his childhood that occurred after he came to believe that his father (Gabriel Byrne) was having an affair on his mother (Miranda
Cast
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Ralph Fiennes
Spider -
Miranda Richardson
Mrs. Cleg, Mrs. Wilkins... -
Gabriel Byrne
Bill Cleg -
Bradley Hall
Young Spider -
Lynn Redgrave
Mrs. Wilkinson -
John Neville
Terrence -
Gary Reineke
Freddy -
Philip Craig
John
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All Critics (146) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (117) | Rotten (20) | DVD (22)
This is one of the director's most accomplished films.
Top CriticIt's a pleasure to watch such an understated treatment of potentially sensational subject matter.
Although languid to a fault, Spider offers some payoff for those with enough patience to stick it out.
Definitely a trip into unexplored territory.
Spider isn't nearly as disturbing as it is intriguing, despite its subject matter.
Cronenberg has made a sad character study that also works as an intellectual thriller. He leaves the viewer feeling a lot like Dennis Cleg: haunted.
Pocas veces la locura ha sido retratada de una manera tan subjetiva y contundente, algo que no sorprende viniendo de la mano de David Cronenberg.
Spider deserves much more than it'll probably get, it's a fine and enjoyable film from a cinematic master.
... the film's slow, toilsome journey does not lead to any particularly shocking or interesting revelations.
What Cronenberg achieves ultimately in his latest mind bender is the full-scale distraction of his audience.
Cronenberg pieces together a compelling portrait of madness, but one which lacks the poignancy to be a rich, moving character study.
Fails to connect with its audience and concludes in a contradictory and jumbled fashion.
Cronenberg remains remarkably faithful to McGrath's vision. His success lies in his willingness to give himself over to the effect and atmosphere of the novel.
This sorta over-ripe Freudianism is, like, so-o-o-o yesterday.
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Spider does not offer anykind of insight into it's main character's psyche. All we get is Ralph Fiennes mumbling his lines on his own. Maybe that is the way that Cronenberg intended it to be, but anyhow it leaves viewer cold and outside.
Cronenberg's typical style does not especially help the film either. As usually he underplays the whole film and leave all the nuances out from his film. Spider is a boring and pointless hour and a half. It begins from nowhere and ends to nowhere.
I admire the subject matter here and i admire what Cronenberg is reaching with this film, but it is still one of the biggest failures in great director's filmography.