Film Review: Cosmopolis

Director: David Cronenberg

The well known novel by Don DeLillo of the sane name is well regarded in literary circles and actually was at the forefront of anti-Wall Street movements well before the recession even hit in 2003. Now 9 years later David Cronenberg got his hands on the rights to a film version of the book, he missed out on his preferred lead of Colin Farrell due to scheduling conflicts with Total Recall and also lost Marion Cotillard for the same reason but a different film.

The film follows billionaire trader Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) as he slowly makes his way across Manhattan to get his haircut by his favourite barber. Along the way he is held up due to a visit from the US President to the city and also gets caught in a protest against Wall Street. During the traffic jams he meets up with many different characters as they discuss topics big and small.

Robert Pattinson as Eric Packer, billionaire hedge fund manager

Robert Pattinson certainly looks the part of the arrogant billionaire trader but his demeanour lacks the swagger and charisma to pull off this lead role. Any Twilight fans seeing this film purely for him will love the fact he's on-screen constantly but would be bored to death by the dialogue that is lengthy and often uninteresting. Whilst trying to look cool and unruffled, Pattinson ends up not doing much in terms of body movement and seems to just be reading his lines. The other characters are completely incidental and its a film that apart from the 3 scenes could be run in any order as the other characters affecting his trip to the barber have no real relation to each other or the central plot.

It honestly felt like this film could have been done over the radio, visually there is very little to see in this film as the dialogue takes centre stage and the overall plot means little against the parochial type speeches made throughout. Another option would be to have people stand at the lectern to deliver their lines and most of the dialogue is needlessly long and rather predictable. Overall this is a bore of a film and it doesn't surprise me that many people walked out of this movie halfway through.

0.5/4 missed opportunity on a borefest that talks you into submission