Dead Ringers **** (1988, Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske) – Classic Movie Review 7233
‘Two bodies. Two minds. One soul.’ Jeremy Irons is brilliant as exact lookalike identical twin gynecologists Beverly Mantle and Elliot Mantle, whose relationship starts to crumble over a woman, actress Claire Niveau (Geneviève Bujold), who comes to the twins’ Toronto clinic for her infertility problem, in director David Cronenberg’s polished psychological body horror thriller Dead Ringers.
Irons clearly relished his dual role and cleverly creates two entirely separate characters, the confident and cynical Elliot and the shy and passive Beverly, which is satisfying but also significant plot wise when one brother is impersonating his identical twin.
Dead Ringers finds director Cronenberg on inspired form in one of his best movies. It is a weird, unpleasant, quite scary movie. Bujold impresses too.
It is very adult material, rated suitable for 18 years and over.
Jeremy Irons plays the two roles of Beverly and Elliot Mantle in Dead Ringers.
Cronenberg co-writes the screenplay with Norman Snider, based on the lives of Stewart Marcus and Cyril Marcus and on the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland, a highly fictionalised version of the real-life Marcus’s story.
Jill and Jacqueline Hennessy, identical twins, make their film debut as twin escorts, Mimsy and Coral. Jonathan and Nicholas Haley play the young Beverly and Elliot.
Also in the cast are Heidi von Palleske as Cary, Barbara Gordon as Danuta, Shirley Douglas as Laura, Stephen Lack as Anders Wolleck, Nick Nichols as Leo, Lynne Cormack as Arlene, Damir Andrei as Birchall, Miriam Newhouse as Mrs Bookman, David Hughes, Richard W Farrell, Marsha Moreau, Dee McCafferty and Denis Akiyama as Pharmacist.
Irons thanked Cronenberg in his acceptance speech when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991 for Reversal of Fortune.
RIP Denis Akiyama (1952–2018). He was known for Pixels (2015), Repo Men (2010) and Johnny Mnemonic (1995). He died on 28 June 28 2018 in Toronto.
© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7233
Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com
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