In my review for A Beautiful Mind, I complained that the movie switched points of view once John Nash’s schizophrenia was diagnosed, and that was the interesting point of view. I believe that I said that there are no movies that keep the main character’s point of view when his or her illness is identified. I was wrong. Spider does and does it very effectively.
Spider is a 2002 David Cronenberg film about a man named Dennis Cleg, played by Ralph Fiennes. He is released from a mental hospital to a halfway home of sorts in his hometown. There, he spends his time remembering his childhood, specifically the time he believes his father, played by Gabriel Byrne, killed his mother, played by Miranda Richardson. The way he remembers, and how he deals with the memories causes serious issues in his current life.
Throughout the movie, his memories are shown as parts of his life, shot no differently than any other scene. In fact, it took me a scene or two to realize that was what the viewer was seeing. Spider is in the memories, occasionally interacting with the characters in them. Sometimes, someone in his current life will say his name, and when he looks up, the only thing that has changed are the people in the room. His memories are out of order and unreliable. As viewers, it becomes apparent that attempting to piece them together is difficult, if not impossible. But the movie never gives us any other point of view. We get glimpses of other character’s interactions with Spider but only through his point of view.
This fractured point of view is truly effective at making the story tense, and at showing Spider’s illness. It is never identified as being schizophrenia, but the clues we get from the movie imply that it is. His very lucid memories, the fact that he speaks to himself and wears 5 shirts at one point add up to schizophrenia (at least movie style). As we’ve discussed, there are specific behaviors that moviemakers use to denote someone has a mental illness and Cronenberg checks all of the boxes. However, because the movie is from Spider’s perspective (and how sympathetically Fiennes plays him), his illness is not being criticized or mocked as it usually is. In fact, we know how sick he is, and how problematic it is for his life because we are living it with him. His mistreatment at the hands of his landlady, played by Vanessa Redgrave, is not extreme in the grand scheme of mental health care on film, but how strongly it affects him makes it hard to watch.
Where the intrigue of the movie comes from is his understanding of what happened to his mother. At first, we see that his parents have a tension-filled relationship, full of violence and anger. His father is a hot-headed, hard drinking Irishman who goes to the bar every night. His mother is a quiet, respectful housewife who makes dinner and can only cry at her husband’s mistreatment. When we see his father cheat on his mother, it makes sense that he would do that. Only, as we see more of their marriage and more of his life, Spider’s recollection becomes harder to reconcile. The fact that his mother and his father’s mistress, who takes over as mother seamlessly, are played by the same actress complicates things. The fact that his father is confused by Spider’s insistence that his mother has been replaced, instead of just angry, begins to confuse what we are supposed to understand. There is a brilliant scene when his father is speaking to a young Spider about what he thinks happened to his mother, and we watch the moment when his father realizes that something might actually be wrong. He doesn’t know how to handle it, but the moment makes the viewer go back over everything that’s happened so far. Once we do that, the signs that Spider’s thinking has been disordered for a while begin to appear everywhere. But because we’re seeing Spider’s thoughts, we have no way to prove it, just like he can’t prove his mother’s murder.
The movie, despite being a dark Cronenberg movie, is quite sympathetic to Spider. He’s the main character, telling his own story to the audience. His illness is viewed as an illness by everyone, including the doctors in the mental hospital and his landlady (at one point, the doctor in the hospital even allows him to return a broken piece of glass by himself). He goes about his business, not harming anyone. His symptoms seem to be too profound to allow him to work, but he is able to go to the pub and walk around town by himself. He’s not shown to be taking medication at any time in the movie, and that’s not commented on. It’s weird to say that a thriller with horror movie overtones is positive, but this is a pretty positive portrayal of mental health conditions, while at the same time giving viewers a visual understanding of disordered thinking. In addition, Ralph Fiennes is really amazing as the title character, as are the rest of the cast. He’s sensitive and realistic in his portrayal.
Spider is a great little gem of a movie that should have a bigger audience than it does. It has something interesting to say about mental health conditions in addition to its main story.
Next week, we’ll take a look at Girl, Interrupted, and the controversy around it. Have you seen Spider? What did you think?
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