THE RELEASE OF EASTERN PROMISES PROVIDES A GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO REVIVE SOME OF DIRECTOR DAVID CRONENBERG’S EARLIER FILMS, AMONG WHICH DEAD RINGERS COULD QUALIFY AS HIS MASTERPIECE.
An emotionally devastating study of the perverse relationship between identical twin gynaecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantle (both played by Jeremy Irons), Dead Ringers is an intense psychological drama rather than a horror film. The Mantle twins run a private infertility clinic in Toronto, but the delicate symbiotic balance of their relationship is upset by the eruption into their lives of a hedonistic actress (Genevieve Bujold). As always, the twins share everything, including the actress, until Beverly realises he has found something he wants for himself alone. Torn between their love of the woman and fear of separation fromeach other, the twins descend into a drug-fuelled whirlpool of emotional confusion. In the same way, Cronenberg pulls us deeper and deeper into this harrowing tale of separation and loss.