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Cosmopolis Or How Robert Pattinson Plunged A Stake Through Edward Cullen's Heart
R-Patz has finally cast of the shackles of Edward Cullen and proved himself as an actor of real prowess in Cosmopolis – my film of the year so far
“Prepare to be surprised” reads the tagline for Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg’s long awaited adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel, and given the fact that teen idol Robert Pattinson adorns the posters, slumped over in a beast of a limousine, you get the feeling that it’s his performance that we’re being directed towards. He is arguably the biggest star of the moment, thrown from relative obscurity into the blinding light via the Twilight series, and the legion of batshit fans that it has managed to accrue. The worry for Pattinson in becoming so closely associated with one role is that the more popular Twilight becomes, and certainly it’s showing no signs of abating, the harder it will be for him to craft a career for himself when the franchise inevitably comes to a close.
Kudos to him then for taking on Cosmopolis, a dark, challenging, radical change of pace directed by David Cronenberg. I’ll cut right to the chase: The film is an absolute work of art, and Robert Pattinson’s performance is nothing short of stunning.
“I want to get a haircut” young billionaire Eric Packer (Pattinson) demands at the start of the film. “The President is in town, streets will be stripped from the map” his security warns him. Packer doesn’t care. He wants to get a hair-cut, and he wants to get it across town. He’s a billionaire, used to getting what he wants, the world revolves around him and him alone.
The film is an absolute work of art, and Robert Pattinson’s performance is nothing short of stunning.
So this is the film: Packer driving across town to get his mop-chopped, whilst outside New York is in the middle of a riot against capitalism. On the face of it this could be construed as a fairly cynical attempt at exploiting the zeitgeist, juxtaposing a whole city of unrest with one man’s inconsequential desire, a banker-bashing tract without any real cinematic longevity. This is what I feared it would be. How utterly, utterly wrong I was.
What the film manages to do brilliantly is inject action and a vibrant kineticism into a small space, in this case the limousine in which the majority of the story takes place. Packer sits on his leather throne like a drunken marionette as people enter and exit his vehicle, either to warn him, advise him, protect him, examine his prostate or fuck him, and his reaction is similarly non-plussed whether he’s being told of a threat on his life or whether he’s got Juliette Binoche writhing around his crotch. This is the most important thing to know about Packer as a character, he is completely alienated by the real world around him, instead he deals in abstractions. To him, time is currency. We see him getting excited about septillionths of seconds and wanting to buy a church full of Rothko paintings, but little else.
Packer sits on his leather throne like a drunken marionette as people enter and exit his vehicle, either to warn him, advise him, protect him, examine his prostate or fuck him
Despite this, Packer strives to understand the physical, the concrete. He constantly re-affirms his knowledge by repeating the line “I know this”, whilst also spending the film seeking out food and sex, or occasionally extreme self-mutilation in order, seemingly, to experience anything other than the figures which fill his head. The only other film in recent memory which takes a similar stance would be David Fincher’s Fight Club, which simultaneously critiques and positions itself within a capitalist framework, at the same time examining the effect money and corporate enterprises have on masculinity. The script is brilliant at enforcing this point. It reads like the poetry of capitalism, occasionally very funny, occasionally incredibly dense to the point of being completely alienating to the viewer, deliberately so. Not having read DeLillo’s novel I don’t know how much of the script was lifted directly from the source material and how much Cronenberg wrote himself, but certainly the dialogue flows beautifully and with a ferocious rhythm.
Speaking of rhythm, the film’s score, somewhat reminiscent of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York, is phenomenal. If the soundtrack to Drive got everyone excited last year, then this one is just as good. Electric, energetic, tense and overbearing, it lifts some scenes to stratospheric levels, not least the film’s pitch-perfect climax.
Six people walked out of the Cosmopolis screening I attended, presumably they were twi-hards who wanted to see Robert Pattinson be Robert Pattinson, or maybe they wanted something linear and easy to follow. Ignore them and go and see this film, probably the most exciting piece of cinema this century.
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COMMENTS
Changing perceptions is what films should do. If only he would now star in another big blockbuster so he can be referred to something other than Twilight star.
Lovely review.Im happy for Rob.He's really going to go far in his career....
Nice..Great to see Robert Pattinson do something different,Now we know he's going to be taken seriously.ive this movie and i loved it cos it gets you thinking.Its either you love it or you hate it but i love it and i've seen it more than twice already
oh yeah, he need a blockbuster, but his 4 other film seemed to be indies, rob so want to be respected as an actor, mission blacklist might be next, then the rover, but i think child44 with director and summit entertainment / liongate, so i think rob is in this movie, and i hope his massive fan base will support him and remember ROBERT PATTINSON, IS NOT EDWARD CULLEN, AND thank you Harry Harris, i am so proud of rob! a rob pattinson, fan
You understood what Chris Tookey of Daily Mail did not. Lovely review.
so long
great review! the dialogue was lifted in its entirety (what scenes Cronenberg did use, that is) from the book. He did not contribute any dialogue, just the interconnective tissue, as he put it, between scenes, in order to make it into a film.
I watched this last week in a screen with 20 or so people. It was empty by the the end credits except for a teenage couple in the back row. Regardless, it was probably the best cinematic experience I've ha since There will be blood. I was very much impressed.
Thanks Suzie, I suspected as much, standout scene was talking to his hairdresser for me.
I always knew Rob was a great actor. I'm so happy David Cronenberg saw the potential in him and gave him this great part. His true fans will follow his career beyond Twilight. Most of us have actually been waiting for this time for a while now.
What a thorough and thoughtful review! My suspicions have been confirmed. I knew this would be a great movie and that Robert Pattinson’s star would continue to shine brighter with each opportunity he’s given to show us what he’s got! Can’t wait for U.S. release!
"David Fincher’s Fight Club, which simultaneously critiques and positions itself within a capitalist framework, at the same time examining the effect money and corporate enterprises have on masculinity." Plus it's got a really cool red leather jacket in it and Bob's bitch tits.
The hairdresser scene was very poignant to me,seemed like Eric trying to capture his lost soul through the memories of his younger years.And Paul G. and Robert scenes together was so powerful in a subtle way.The good thing was the great Paul G. didn't swallow Robert in their scene AND IF possible Robert surpass the acting prowess of great PG. The more you watched this movie the more it stays with you.BRILLIANT!!
Shouldnt a film feel like a documentary rather than an actor doing acting. You should feel lost in the character. I haven't seen the film yet but I heard he embodies the character very well. I seen his acting process and it gave me goosebumps how the minute they said action Robert transformed into character. It was beautiful and was like poetry coming out of his mouth. If everyone gives Robert a chance he is going to big places. He's already popular but he will have something bigger and nothing is bigger than respect.
Both valid points David
Why do you think people leaving the cinema were twihards?Twihards are waiting for november to see the last twilight movie,not Pattinson's indie drama Cosmopolis.But your review is really great.
"legion of batshit fans"? So now critics see what we saw, and we're still the crazy ones - how does that work? A totally unnecessary comment.
Absolutely awesome and extremely valid review.Thanks HH.this book is one of my fave, truly unforgettable. I heard Robert was magnetic as an actor playing E Packer. I can't wait to see this in its entirety.
best review. thanks for the kind words.im so proud of rob. he has many talents and skills under his sleeves
"The script is brilliant at enforcing this point. It reads like the poetry of capitalism, occasionally very funny, occasionally incredibly dense to the point of being completely alienating to the viewer, deliberately so." You really nailed it - some reviewers did, others did not. At all.They did not see how the alienating effect of the script was deliberate, and they never saw how funny it really is, or poetical. To me it was so obvious that the film was like a work of art or long poem, and that it had its really funny moments. To this day it's hard for me to understand how reviewers just totally missed it and just stayed at the surface. Some really never got it at all. I love how you too liked the dialogue and its pace - it's very important as it's something which fascinated Cronenberg to the point that he kept the dialogue untouched and as he said, filled the scenes around it when he wrote the script. The actor, Pattinson, was also fascinated by the lyricism of the dialogues. Stranegly enough, it's the dialoge which seem to turn off lots of moviegoers and reviewers, who find it too obscure or strange or boring. It's a love it or hate it thing.... Very few reviewers also mention the music, it's nice you noticed its beauty too and the great way it's used in the movie. Thanks for your intelligent, insightful review!
People walking out of a movie is sooo odd. I´ve never walked out of a movie, no matter how bad it was....
I'm totally agree with you, thank you for watch the movie whitouth prejudice. Rob is great in it !.
I counted in my screening. 47 people walked out.
I agree that walking out of a movie is very odd and simply not the done thing. I even stayed till the end of that Jack Black film Gullivers Travels 3D, possibly the worst film I ever saw in the cinema.
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