Dead Ringers (1988)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske, Barbara Gordon, Stephen Lack, Shirley Douglas. [R]

Irons gives two of the most astonishing performances of his film career in the same motion picture as two sides of the same aberrant coin: twin gynecologists who share patients as lovers in grotesque ways. Director Cronenberg’s first full transitional stride from his early body horror efforts to the more psychologically troubling terrain he’d stake out in the 1990s. As horrifying as it is heartbreaking, the movie’s progression is hard to predict, and there are stunning moments of unsettling tenderness (i.e., a three-person slow dance to “In the Still of the Night”) and bravura brutality (the implementation of what can best be described as a “gynecological torture tool”). Even those who find the experience too chilly, cruel and objectionable can at least marvel at the technical tour de force on display, as Cronenberg and director of photography Peter Suschitzky (their first of nine straight collaborations) employ innovative motion control cameras to keep the twins in the same shot, a seamless effect amplified by the ease with which the viewer accepts the ruse that these individuals aren’t being played by the same actor, and by his or her intrinsic knowledge of which one is which at all times—the understated physical modifications, the alternate postures, etc. Inspired in part by a pair of real twin gynecologists (Cyril & Stewart Marcus) who were on staff at New York Hospital.

88/100