RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
RT's Blu-ray HQ
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Spider
Spider

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon
Bookmark and Share

Spider (2003)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
85 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:125

Fresh:106

Rotten:19

Average Rating:7.5/10

Consensus: Ralph Fiennes is brilliant in this accomplished and haunting David Cronenberg film.

Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Feb 28, 2003 Limited

Box Office: $1,278,369

Synopsis: The details of life are acute to Spider (Ralph Fiennes), who is in a constant struggle to overcome a traumatic event early in his life that forever shapes the real world he is forced to reside in.... The details of life are acute to Spider (Ralph Fiennes), who is in a constant struggle to overcome a traumatic event early in his life that forever shapes the real world he is forced to reside in. He has been allowed to give life a second chance after a long stay in a mental institution and returns to the streets of the East End of London where he grew up; sent to a halfway house under the stern, but unsupervised watch of Mrs. Wilkenson (Lynn Redgrave).

The sights, sounds and smells of being reacquainted with his old neighborhood send Spider further down a shadowy path that reawakens memories of his where his mother (Miranda Richardson) and his father (Gabriel Byrne) raised him.

His freedom from the sterile and medicated environment afforded by the institution gives rise to an unfolding mystery that surrounds his youth. As he revisits the familiar streets, Spider soon begins to uncover the real truth, shifting seamlessly back and forth between the tragic events that polarized a boy’s adolescence to the shell of a man enduring the surreal plausible reality of today.

Further complicating matters, the halfway house only seems to both confuse and focus his perceptions at the same time. Terrance (John Neville), who also lives in the house, is a kindred spirit and supplies a certain comfort that has been absent from Spider’s life. While Mrs. Wilkenson starts to personify his delusional account of his past, leading Spider to question his own memories.

Based on the compelling novel by Patrick McGrath, who also adapts the screenplay, the gothic and fantastical world that director David Cronenberg conjures up with SPIDER immerses the audience into the depths of a deeply disturbed boy who has crafted a reality all his own; a reality that takes him to the very limits of his faltering sanity. -- © Sony Pictures Classics [More]

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Bradley Hall

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Bradley Hall, John Neville, Lynn Redgrave

Director: David Cronenberg

Director: David Cronenberg
Screenwriter: Patrick McGrath
Producer: David Cronenberg
Composer: Howard Shore
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
  • Pictures
1 - 5 of 11

See More Movie Trailers & Pictures

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Jul 29, 2003

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Spider

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/18/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/30/06
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: NYC Film Critic | comment Comment
03/05/05
Ethan Alter
Ethan Alter
NYC Film Critic

... the film's slow, toilsome journey does not lead to any particularly shocking or interesting revelations.

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
01/15/05
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

What Cronenberg achieves ultimately in his latest mind bender is the full-scale distraction of his audience.

Full Review Source: Bangitout.com | comment Comment
12/06/04
Jordan Hiller
Jordan Hiller
Bangitout.com

Cronenberg pieces together a compelling portrait of madness, but one which lacks the poignancy to be a rich, moving character study.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Alternative | comment Comment
09/30/04
Jay Antani
Jay Antani
Los Angeles Alternative

Fails to connect with its audience and concludes in a contradictory and jumbled fashion.

Full Review Source: Oregon Herald | comment Comment
08/13/04
Mark Sells
Mark Sells
Oregon Herald

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Mediasharx | comment Comment
06/02/04
Clint Morris
Clint Morris
Mediasharx
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
05/19/04
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas CityLife | comment Comment
04/21/04
Matt Kelemen
Matt Kelemen
Las Vegas CityLife

This sorta over-ripe Freudianism is, like, so-o-o-o yesterday.

Full Review Source: Cinemania | comment 1 Comment
01/28/04
Dan Jardine
Dan Jardine
Cinemania
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
12/15/03
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

Ainda que o filme (refletindo o estado mental de seu protagonista) impeça um maior envolvimento do espectador, é impossível deixar de admirar a bela estrutura da narrativa e a ótima atuação de Miranda Richardson.

comment Comment
09/26/03
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN) | comment Comment
08/13/03
Bob Bloom
Bob Bloom
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

It isn't a film; it's a nightmare.

Full Review Source: Mark Reviews Movies | comment Comment
08/06/03
Mark Dujsik
Mark Dujsik
Mark Reviews Movies
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
07/02/03
Boston Phoenix
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It may be Cronenberg's most depressingly bleak film, yet it is essential viewing for all admirers of the director.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
06/01/03
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
05/28/03
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
all

Latest News for Spider

September 29, 2005: Critical Consensus: "Blue" Sinks, "Violence" Kills, "Serenity" Soars
This week at the movies, we have sexy divers ("Into the Blue"), secretive family men ("A History of Violence"), space renegades ("Serenity"),... More...

See All

More DVDs

Close
Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
14% 14% The Ugly Truth
98% 98% Up
36% 36% G.I. Joe: The Rise of …
52% 52% The Taking of Pelham 1…
45% 45% Ice Age: Dawn of the D…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
36% 36% Angels & Demons
68% 68% Funny People
25% 25% Four Christmases
45% 45% Shorts

More New Releases…

See All

RT On Current TV

The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV

DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...

Learn how you can be part of the show

More...

What’s Hot On RT

Total Recall

Total Recall

John Travolta's top reviewed movies

Disney Countdown

Disney Countdown

Look back on Disney's best animated movies!

RT's Gift Guide

RT's Gift Guide

Give the best movies, gear, and more!

What's Coming Out

What's Coming Out

Find movies for the holiday weekend!

Other News

Close
  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Weekly Ketchup: Zombieland 2 in 3D?
18
  • First Look (Sort Of) at New Nightmare's Freddy Source: ShockTillYouDrop.com
24
  • First Look at Shrek Forever After Source: USA Today
48
  • Woody Harrelson Will Battle Zombies in 3-D Source: Moviehole
26
  • Natalie Portman Says Kat Denning Is in Thor Source: MTV
34
  • Disney Restructuring Has Broad Implications Source: Los Angeles Times
10
  • Joel Silver Talks Ninja Assassin, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, and More Source: Collider.com
1
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
126
  • Idris Elba Joins Thor Source: Hollywood Reporter
112
  • Jackass 3D Coming in 2010? Source: Collider.com
32
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: New Moon Shatters Records
181
  • Total Recall: John Travolta's Best Movies
90
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
63
  • 5 Facts About The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
62
  • Ban Them All! 10 Infamously Controversial Movies
59
  • Critics Consensus: Flee From Ninja Assassin
44
  • Friday Harvest: The Road, Avatar, and more!
37
  • WB offers DVD to Blu-ray Trade-In Program
33
  • RT's Blu-ray Picks from WB
22
  • Five Favorite Films With Zombieland Director Ruben Fleischer
22
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
16
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
11
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
21
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
8
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
21
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
8
  • Wolverine Creator Len Wein Talks About the Film
28
  • Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine; Possible Sequel
28
  • Duncan Jones talks Moon, Sam Rockwell, and Mute
14
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Spider at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Spider at IGN
  • Spider at AskMen

Fresh Links

Featured
Wes Anderson on Fox
Wes Anderson on Fox External Link

The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Animated Oscar?
Animated Oscar? External Link

Hollywood.com ponders whether or not an animated film could win Best Picture.

TIME's Holiday Movie Preview
TIME's Holiday Movie Preview External Link

Richard Corliss previews the season's best offerings and hottest tickets.

Scenic Routes
Scenic Routes External Link

The AV Club's Mike D'Angelo airs his beefs with Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men.

Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Follow RT on Twitter External Link

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.