Cosmopolis: A film review
A limousine, Robert Pattinson and a dystopia not far from reality is what Cronenberg’s movie is all about. Based on Don DeLillo’s novel, this film adaptation follows the day of a young CEO that is trapped in his own rationality (controlling everything from figures, to a strategic wedding to his prostate malfunction) more or less stripped by emotions, yet surrendering to his physical needs (whether it’s hunger, urination or sexual urges satisfied by women other than his wife). All this occurs in the asphyxiating space of his well protected, state of the art limousine. Pattinson successfully embodies the man who is trapped in the capitalist bubble, yet half way through the film makes an effort to break free (in his own way), leading to his own demise.
The film, though slow at times and visually restrictive, manages to see the life, our life, in a society where money runs in our blood and determines our pulse. However, after watching this film I came to wonder: is this negative representation of capitalist society yet another cliché, an artistic effort that more than often sees capitalism as the end of all civilisation or is this film a reality? And if so, are we blindly leading ourselves to our very own demise?
