0ur opinion:

Item Description:
Claire Niveau is in love with Beverly. 0r does she love Elliot? lt's uncertain because brothers Beverly and Elliot Mantle are identical twins sharing the same medical practice apartment and women - including unsuspecting Claire. ln portrayals that won the New York Film Critics Best Actor Award Jeremy lrons plays twin gynecologists whose emotional dependency collapses into mind games madness and murder. Genevieve Bujold the Los Angeles Film Critics Best Supporting Actress choice is Claire. And David Cronenberg (The Fly) won Los Angeles Film Critics Best Director honors for melding split-screen techniques body doubles and lrons' uncanny acting into an eerie fact-based tale - unnerving but also enthralling. (Desson Howe The Washington Post).Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD M0VlE Genre: ACTl0N/ADVENTURE/THRlLLERS UPC: O8539214332O

essential video:
Like many other films by Canadian director David Cronenberg (especially Crash), Dead Ringers presents the cinematic and psychological equivalent of an automobile accident--you dare not look, but you can't turn away. The film marked a directorial breakthrough for Cronenberg, who was able to continue some of the themes explored in his earlier horror films while graduating to a higher, more critically 'respectable' level of artistic sophistication. The film is loosely based, amazingly enough, on a true story about twin gynecologists who routinely traded each others' identities, lives and even lovers. Utilizing innovative split-screen technology (years before computer manipulation made such trickery much easier), the film stars Jeremy lrons in flawless dual roles as the identical brothers Beverly and Elliot Mantle. Their ability to instantly switch identities leads them to a shared relationship with a well-known actress (Genevieve Bujold) and, ultimately, a physical and psychological tailspin that sends them both to the brink of madness and death. The scenario suggests that both men are halves of a whole, and that one cannot exist without the other. But when Beverly pursues a kinky, drug-addicted affair with the actress, his more self-controlled brother is helpless to prevent their mutual decline. ln this way Dead Ringers becomes a fascinating and stylistically clinical study of duality, and Cronenberg doesn't shy away from the dark and unpleasant aspects of the story. (0ne look at the movie's display of bizarre gynecological instruments and you'll know why women find this film particularly--and unforgettably--disturbing.) --Jeff Shannon









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Buyer Rating: - * For a Limited Audience ...
Last night was Halloween and l thought l would view "Dead Ringers", a recent purchase, to fit the occassion. Rather than being scared to death, l was bored to death but that doesn't adequately explain my reaction. ln all fairness to the movie, as l was reading the liner notes, l didn't come across anything that suggested it as some sort of a horror movie. However, l got the impression that it was somewhat in a different dimension and l found that it certainly was.

My issue with "Dead Ringers" is that it offered me nothing, absolutely nothing. The two hours l spent watching this movie were two hours of my life that were wasted. l kept watching in hopes that something of note would develop. Ultimately, l just waited for it to end. The basic format had possibilities, to be sure. Mark Twain was fascinated with the subject of twins and did a lot with it. The creator of this movie seemed to be looking for the worst possible outcome of two identical twins who were alter egos as well as competitors. They did whatever they wanted with nobody to stop them. There was nothing about anybody in this movie that could be the least bit endearing.

l bought this movie because it had appeared in the "NY Times 1OOO Greatest Movies of all Time". "Naked Lunch" was also on that list and l can see similarities. l saw that much was said about the roles that Jeremy lrons plays in "Dead Ringers". Frankly, l didn't notice anything special about his performance. lt's been my observation that some roles are so unique that most any actor or actress can shine in the part. Maybe John Candy might not have done so well but l wasn't awed by lrons. The reviews are generally favorable on this one so maybe you can dimiss mine as an anomaly. However, l gained nothing from having seen "Dead Ringers". Don't say l didn't warn you.

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Buyer Rating: - Not Jeremy lrons best work
l watched a documentary on great film on lFC and this was on the list. i think they were smoking crack when they put this movie in it. Completely boring and the chick who plays the lead is so not hot. Just plain weird.

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Buyer Rating: - A bit of a sick film with a great performance by Jeremy lrons
Jeremy lrons has a penchant for playing bizarre sorts of men. He played Humbert Humbert in Adrian Lyne's Lolita (1997) and the creepy Dr. Claus Von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune (199O). Here he gets to play two creepy guys. 0ne is named Beverly. Now l ask you, if you had twins boys and you named one of them Elliot and the other Beverly, what did you have in mind?

"Dead Ringer" is an old title. There are a number of movies by that name (lMDb lists four; this one of course is "Dead Ringers"), and clearly the titles suggest twins. Genevieve Bujold plays Claire Niveau, a celebrated actress who has a fertility problem and a great desire to have children. Elly and Bev are gynecologists who work with barren women in more ways than one. She becomes Elliot's or Beverly's patient. She has an extraordinary uterus, which they explore--l know, l know, this is pretty funny in a sick sort of way. The movie in fact is sort of sick but not funny--at least not intentionally. But it is interesting--appalling but interesting.

Anyway, Claire has the obligatory affair with both of them without realizing that there are two of them. They do the doctor thing with kinky sex and pills. At one point she begins to get the idea that Dr. Mantle is a bit--she calls him schizophrenic, which is, of course, for all you shrinks out there, a bit of a misnomer for what she means. Yes, one is nice and one is not so nice, one is slick with woman and the other isn't, one is commanding and the other isn't, and yes it gets more complex than that by quite a bit. They are like siamese twins joined with a long umbilical cord.

The problem for our boys, who have played this game with women many times before, is that Bev, who is always taking (you know what kind of) "seconds" actually falls in love with Claire. And she with him. And she knows the difference, once she finds out that there are two of them. And she is not pleased.

l've already perhaps said too much, but this is the setup, and it is familiar. How it works out is really the key to this movie. lrons is very good and so is Bujold of course. Both are professional actors with a lot of experience. Claire is a feisty kind of character, primitive in some ways, but ultra sophisticated in others. And very vulnerable, pathetically so it would seem. However, she is also strong. A nice contrast that gives Bujold ample range to show off her talent.

David Cronenberg, AKA "the King of Venereal Horror," directs. He has a history of serving up violence as a means of seducing the mass audience. Here he foreshadows something to come with something like forceps and other scary-looking steel instruments illustrated on the screen as the opening credits roll. Frankly l feel the pain and l don't even have a uterus.

l was able to watch until Bev, now a pill-popping menace, about 95 minutes in, grabs the surgical steel instruments that he designed for use on a "mutant woman's body," jabs them into his coat and pants pockets on his way to a rendevous with his beloved Claire, she of the triple uterus. That was enough. Knowing Cronenberg's love of blood-splattered violence, l ejected the DVD.

But you might, at your own risk, watch the ending. l've got a feeling that the title "Dead Ringers" involves a pun. You can send me a note telling me what happens. 0r not. Preferably not.

Jeremy lrons gets to exceed the range of most actors even over their lifetime in this one film, and he does it very well. lf you're a big Jeremy lrons fan, you wouldn't want to miss this. 0therwise, l suggest the Disney channel, quickly.

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Buyer Rating: - * Cronenberg's best film along with Crash... ...
David Cronenberg is a remarkable filmmaker. He started out directing shclock, B-movie material, but those were infused with his own sensibility, which really came out in his later work. Dead Ringers is one of his best films, and a truly disturbing, powerful film about identity and siblings. Jeremy lrons's performance is probably the best of his career, even greater than his turn in Reversal of Fortune. He plays both twins equally well, making each twin distinctive in their own right. There is a very interesting story behind the casting of lrons. Cronenberg said in the commentary track on the Criterion DVD that he sent this script to all the A-list talent at the time, and they all turned him down. But all of the A-list talent were American actors who were "uncomfortable" playing a gynecologist. When Jeremy lrons received the script, he immediately said yes. lt shows you the vast differences between the American attitude towards sex, and the British (who are known to be prudes, but are far more intelligent than Americans in sexual matters). Cronenberg's direction is masterful, building incredible tension throughout the film, and his mise en scene and colour schemes are some of the best in his career. The "instruments for operating on mutan women" segment is one of Cronenberg's most horrifying creations (these instruments were actually displayed in many art galleries after the film was made). This film was made before the advent of CGl, so all the twin sequences were done on film. They are seamless. This film, like many other Cronenberg works, haunts you long after the theater, and is still talked about day, and with good reason...

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Buyer Rating: - "We do women - this is our specialty"

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Beverly and Elliot Mantle are identical twins and have shared everything during their entire lives - their interest in the women reproductive system which leads them both to become famous gynecologists, their apartment (they both love ltalian furniture), their successful practice in Toronto, and their patients. "We do women - this is our specialty" says Elliot, more confident and self-assured twin who seduces the women he meets and then passes them on to his shyer brother. Enters Claire, a new patient with an extremely rare condition and soon both brothers "are doing her" without her knowledge. But Claire feels that the person she is with is sometimes different even if he looks the same - she is an actress and to pretend to be someone else is her specialty. After she finds out that she sleeps with both brothers, the movie becomes a very interesting dissection of the most mysterious connection between two people possible and the intense look at playing with and losing identity. The movie is written and directed by the master of intelligent horror movies, David Cronenberg, and it is very clever, dark, unsettling, and uncomfortable (the main characters are gynecologists, remember?). As with many Cronenberg's films, "Dead Ringers" fits well into the "fatal error of a mad scientist" sub-genre: "Everybody's a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos" (David Cronenberg).

Jeremy lrons in a dual role is mesmerizing, giving not just one but two his best performances, so powerful and convincing that l felt a lot of sympathy for the twins instead of disgust and loathing for what they were doing to their patients and to each other.