David Cronenberg likes to push the envelope in film. With Scanners, he ushered in a new wave of horror. With The Dead Zone, he gave us horror of a more subdued kind. With The Fly, he remade a sci-fi classic and gave it a new spin. And with Dead Ringers, he explored the strange dual life of twins. With Crash, Cronenberg pushes us, but I don't know what kind of repsonse he was going for. The story concerns James Ballard and a group of crash enthusiasts. After his initial crash, Ballard meets up with Helen Remington and a mysterious man named Vaughn. Ballard is soon introduced to the strange world of car crashes, and the rush of sexual tension. Now I can see where there is a thin line that separates these two acts. Both bring out a strong physical and emotional reaction, but the characters in the film are too detached from life. There is sex without pleasure, and the only way these people can experience pleasure, is through the trauma of an automobile accident. The film moves along at a leisurely pace and nothing ever really happens. There is no dramatic need that these characters have to fill. There is no urgency in their actions and their motivations are clouded, by what I interpret as boredom. Cronenberg has done some fine work in the past, and I think he'll come along and shock us with a truly original film. Until then, stick with the four I mentioned at the top.
