Existenz film review

certificate_15

EXISTENZ

Do not underestimate the power of David Cronenberg. He may not be the most mainstream of directors, and he may court controversy at every turn (Crash was merely the most recent example), but he's a film-maker who knows how to bend the parameters of cinema to serve his vision, rather than being limited by them. And such talent is a rare and welcome commodity in a movie market place thick with middle-of-the-road produce.

With customary flair, visual artistry, plot invention and sporadic ickiness, Cronenberg's latest yarn pitches a near-future development in interactive games systems, with organic equipment plugging directly into the spine for the ultimate in virtual reality experience.

But critics raging against this pursuit of computerised thrills gone too far are prepared to back their abhorrence with violent force, and infiltrate a demonstration of game designer Allegra Gellar's (Jennifer Jason Leigh) latest creation: eXistenZ.

After a narrowly unsuccessful attempt on her life, wide-eyed security guard Ted Pikul (Jude Law) finds himself on the run with Gellar, who convinces him to plug into the damaged game console with her in an effort both to repair, and discover clues to the origin of her assassin.

However, Ted's grip on himself blurs, and he's pulled into a nightmarish existence where the real world and the game are almost impossible to tell apart, but being able to do so may be the only thing that can keep them alive.

Co-starring Ian Holm, Christopher Eccleston and Willem Dafoe, this layered, fascinating thriller only reveals how carefully, cleverly crafted it is as the closing credits roll.

But trust me, any apparent discrepancies are deliberate, all loose ends tied up, which is a marked novelty in Cronenberg's work, so if you normally make it your business to steer clear, it's worth knowing that this impressive sci-fi mystery is probably his most accessibly mainstream outing to date.

Trademarks are fully intact, of course, from squirm-inducing physical horror - the game console looks like an animal foetus, a gristle gun escapes metal detectors being constructed of bone and firing clips of human teeth, a Chinese meal re-defining the word disgusting - to the refusal to follow standard camera angles.