I had a
thing about this film for some reason. Not a good type of “thing” either. I’m
not sure why I had this thing; it has everything I usually go for in a film.
Plot twists, a brilliant director, a brilliant leading actor (I mean, Jeremy Irons,
come on…). I got the feeling that
somehow it would be a little too creepy. I came across the film multiple times
and avoided it. Until I saw it in the school library and thought, you know
what, this is dumb. I need to get over this. And boy am I glad I did. Here’s
for getting over one’s fears and moving on. It can be one heck of an
experience. Just like meeting the Mantle twins – only slightly less creepy.
The thing
that’s creepy about Elliot and Beverly Mantle is the fact that they are pretty
much impossible to tell apart. And this, as you can imagine, is a fact that the
twins take full advantage of. They are famous gynaecologists, in reality quiet
and sensitive Beverly does the research and the outgoing Elliot implements it,
managing the “PR” side of things. But be it in consultations, board meetings
and even on dates, the twins live perfectly interchangeably. After all they are
the only ones who can tell each other apart. Until, that is, Claire Niveaux, a
sultry actress with a very interesting gynaecological problem waltzes into
their lives. The unthinkable happens.
The shy and reticent Beverly falls madly in love with her. And for the first
time in the twin’s lives, he wants to keep her all to himself. Now there are
several problems with this plan. Firstly, what will Elliot – who is generally
rather good at getting exactly what he wants in life – say about this and
secondly, will either of them survive this first severing of their umbilical
cord?
First of
all, Ok, I do love the idea. And I am pretty sure that throughout history twins
have abused their looks and replaced each other in various capacities. I
wouldn’t know, I’m not a twin. However, my cousins are twins, one of my dearest
friends is one of twins and I mean… Yes, they call them “identical” twins for a
reason, but it is realistically quite easy to tell them apart. I guess it’s all
about suspending disbelief and all that but I don’t know, possibly because I
was hanging out with my cousins who are twins just before watching this, I
found suspending that bit a bit hard. But let’s not split hairs. At the end of
the day, some twins are almost impossible to tell apart. And although it is
abundantly clear that Jeremy Irons plays both, he does both so well we can let
it slip. By the way, this is an opportune moment to remark on how hard it
actually must be to play not one but two very complicated parts in the same
film. Congrats to Jeremy Irons, it must
be hard enough getting into one character but he very successfully manages to
get into two at once.
Or is it
two, really? Because, while playing around and using every gimmick in the book
with the twins thing, Cronenberg is really asking, as far as I can tell,
whether they actually are two people or two halves of the same person. The way
Kusturica phrased it in “Arizona Dream” was “one person too big to go through
life in one body” or something to that effect. We may well be able to say the
same of the Mantle twins. It reaches the point when, every time Jeremy Irons
appears on the screen, it is literally anyone’s guess which one he is. But
don’t worry, clues are abundant. The insecurity lasts just long enough to shake
you. And shake you this film will. It is definitely, definitely not for the
faint of heart. But worth every spine chilling minute.
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