Why COSMOPOLIS Won’t Let Me Hate It

I watched this twice, last week.  Well, maybe one and a half times.  I watched it once and didn’t like it.  And the next day I watched some bits again because, for no reason, parts of it were sticking in my head.

It’s stagey.  Stilted.  Not all the actors can pull off the Don DeLillo dialogue that Cronenberg (ever a writer’s screenwriter) transposed from book to film.  It’s short and still feels flabby in places.  The thread of a fairly simple plot gets lost.  Among other things.

And yet.

There is something almost brilliant in here, in places.  The weird back-projection of the world outside the car the film (mostly) takes place in is a great choice. There are ideas, and ambitions, and… I’m going to have to watch the damn thing again. Because it’s making me think about it.