Lacking energy, ‘Spider’ saved by acting, theme

In theaters

SPIDER, directed by David Cronenberg, written by Patrick McGrath, based on his novel, 98 minutes, rated R. Now playing, Movie City 8, Bangor.

In spite of what its title implies, “Spider,” the latest in a long run of dark tales from director David Cronenberg, doesn’t exactly have legs.

For that matter, it also doesn’t have much of a heartbeat, though it does crawl – often through the most unsettling of crevices – and the web it weaves is complex enough to generate interest, particularly if you appreciate the work of Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson and Lynn Redgrave, all of whom are excellent here.

The film, from a script Patrick McGrath based on his own novel, is not a prequel to Cronenberg’s 1986 hit, “The Fly,” though some might wish it were.

That film had energy, which “Spider” sorely lacks. It also didn’t seem as if it were lighted by a 15 watt bulb, which is a shortcoming of “Spider,” whose sets are so dim, one occasionally must squint to make out all the machinations. And what machinations.

The film is the story of Dennis “Spider” Cleg (Fiennes as an adult, Bradley Hall as a child), a disturbed man who leaves a long stint in a mental institution to enter a halfway house in the East End of London, the very section of town where he grew up as a boy.

There, he’s met by the owner of the house, the impossibly bad-mannered Mrs. Wilkinson (Redgrave), who initially gives Spider enough freedom to withdraw into his closed world, where he relives in vivid memories all that went wrong in his childhood.

It was as a child that things went sour for Spider. His father, Bill (Gabriel Byrne), a philandering drunk who verbally and physically abused his wife, Mrs. Cleg (Richardson), had a taste for booze that was just as hearty as his taste for whores.

With long nights spent at the local pub, a smoky dump frequented with the sort who flash gummy smiles and cavort in the darkest of corners, Bill’s otherworld is something he’d rather keep to himself. So imagine the tension when Mrs. Cleg catches him having sex with Yvonne, a cheap tart with dishwater blond hair whose corked gaze is as blunt as the shovel Bill eventually wields.

Blurring the lines between what’s real and what’s only a figment of Spider’s shattered memory, one considerably altered by his paranoid schizophrenia, “Spider” is at its most compelling in how it depicts Spider’s illness.

Mirroring “A Beautiful Mind,” illusion tugs at the periphery here, altering faces, shifting landscapes, and building to a twist that leaves more questions than answers.

Grade: B-

On video and DVD

DIE ANOTHER DAY, directed by Lee Tamahori, written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, 123 minutes, rated PG-13.

Whether it’s because the series’ thunder has been stolen by years of imitators and parodies or because the film’s soggy script barely finds a pulse until the last 40 minutes, “Die Another Day” too often feels as if it’s about to die that very day.

The film – the 20th in the Bond franchise – doesn’t break any new ground. Instead of leading the pack, as it has done for four decades, and instead of igniting the genre with fresh twists, the movie plays it too safe and is too long-winded. The midsection alone is among the dullest, most uneventful of the entire Bond lot.

This time out, Bond is trying to put the screws to some shady North Koreans planning an illegal diamond deal – mad billionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), who wants to take over the world by harnessing the sun’s energy, and his henchman, Zao (Rick Yune), a man whose last encounter with Bond left him with diamonds embedded in his face.

As Bond villains go, these two have the necessary toys – an Icelandic compound, a fleet of hovercrafts, laser beams galore – but what they lack is what they need most: a personality. The film finds just that in John Cleese’s Q, who gets most of the film’s laughs in a brief yet fun exchange between him and Bond.

Also strong are a swordfight between Graves and Bond and the film’s terrific final 40 minutes, which pick up the pace considerably as Graves and Zao butt heads with Bond and the new Bond girl, Jinx (Halle Berry).

Madonna’s overhyped cameo is never as loose or as engaging as the video based on her theme song, “Die Another Day,” as she seems to think that just showing up in a leather bustier is enough, which it isn’t – unless of course you’re a prostitute, and even then that’s questionable. Still, Rosamund Pike as Bond’s partner, Miranda Frost, does add necessary bite. It’s she – not Berry as Jinx – who has the best chemistry with Bond, though it’s Berry, not Pike, who will get the first-ever Bond-girl spinoff. But that’s what scoring an Academy Award will do for you.

Grade: C+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.