The Shrouds
If The Shrouds winds up being the last film David Cronenberg directs, it will go down as a fitting end to a legendary career.
The story of GraveTech CEO Karsh (Vincent Cassel) and the fallout that occurs when his tomb-viewing invention is compromised packs all the existential musing, technological ick, body horror, and sex that one could ask for from the maker of The Fly, Videodrome, and Scanners. But its fresh, compelling story and new set of oddly relatable characters makes it far more than a reassembled Greatest Hits package. Instead, it’s his best feature since Eastern Promises and elevates what's been an uneven (read: mildly embarrassing) past 15 years of output for Cronenberg.
In full possession of his filmmaking skills from the start, the writer/director begins The Shrouds in memorable fashion with a brilliant, emotionally cold scene in which Karsh shows his shocked blind date Myrna (Jennifer Dale) his wife's decaying corpse. It’s a practically perfect blend of exposition and action that presents core information while advancing the plot with character development as well as emotional and narrative intrigue.
It's also a “very Cronenbergian” way to get a film going and is far from the last familiar yet ultimately novel detail in The Shrouds. Deeply informed by the 2017 death of Cronenberg’s wife Carolyn, the tale doesn’t shy away from the slow agony of losing a loved one to cancer and — how else would the filmmaker do it? — bluntly recalls the decline of Karsh’s wife Becca (Diane Kruger) as she gradually loses limbs and other parts of her body to the illness.
From there, the techno-horror of Karsh’s “unnatural” software being hacked suggests a delicious potential conspiracy that seeks to undermine his invention and even his marriage. Solitary since Becca’s death, Karsh turns to his computer-savvy ex-brother-in-law Maury (Guy Pearce, in textbook Cronenberg twitchy mode) for help, plus the potentially untrustworthy, Becca-voiced AI assistant that Maury created to help Karsh cope with her loss.
An affair with the blind Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt, House of Cards), flirtations with Becca’s twin (and Maury’s ex) Terry (Kruger), and additional sexy/disturbing flashbacks with his wife add further intrigue to Karsh’s exit from his cocoon. A top candidate with Viggo Mortensen for Cronenberg’s 21st century secret sauce, three-time collaborator Cassel guides us through the bizarre circumstances with a stoic remove, capturing the filmmaker’s distinct frigid tone while imbuing it with enough empathetic humanity to make Karsh’s journey realistic.
Scored by longtime colleague Howard Shore and featuring reunions with Crimes of the Future cinematographer Douglas Koch and editor Christopher Donaldson, The Shrouds features all the assured technical elements that have defined even late-career Cronenberg embarrassments as Maps to the Stars and, yes, Crimes of the Future. But unlike those head-scratchers, this film builds from its solid foundation with writing and acting worthy of Cronenberg’s crew’s efforts — and the filmmaker’s very legacy.
Grade: A-minus. Rated R. Now playing at the Fine Arts Theatre.
(Photo courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films)
