Eric Packer is a high profile asset manager who is a 28 year
old billionaire who can have whatever he wants. He lives aloof from the common
man and when he decides to do something, he uses every resource required to get
it done. This is the same reason that he decides to take a cross city trip to
his favourite barber to get a haircut on the same day that the President of the
United States is in the city and there is an assassination threat. Packer is
adamant on getting the haircut at the same barber come hell or high water and
sets out on the journey with his posse of white limousines which are equipped
with his security personnel. Since he isn’t in his office, Packer conducts his
business from his limousine which is set up as a travelling base of his
operations. Along the way, he is visited by his business associates and many
other people as he makes his journey across the city at a snail’s pace.
This 2012 film was written and directed by David Cronenberg.
The inspiration for the script is derived from a novel of the same title as the
film which was written by Don DeLillo. The film is very heavily dialogue based
with little to no action being done by the main characters in the plot.
Majority of the film takes place within the space of the protagonist’s
limousine as the world carries on around him with traffic, riots and
bloodshed. The protagonist is oblivious
to the world around him as he is successful in his own life, he gets what he
wants and he doesn’t concern himself with the problems of the common man.
Going back to the words of Godard, a film should have a
beginning, middle and end, but the order of which is not necessary. Quite a few
films break away from normal plotlines to mix up the story for a desired effect.
Unfortunately, Cosmopolis has no storyline. While the plot can be defined as ‘the
story of a billionaire who takes a journey across town to get a haircut and meets
people along the way’, the story falls apart since there is no real sense of
progression and no cause-and-effect relationship which brings about the desired
finale. Though it can be said that the story is a compilation of vignettes of
meetings, there is still no relation between the individual occurrences to the
final plot. The story of the film has no course and just hangs in the air with
no explanations of why things happen and why the protagonist lands up in a
questionable position at the end of the film. The dialogue orientation of the
film and lack of action means that the pace of the film is exceptionally slow.
The film practically makes no sense because the main focus of the film, the dialogue,
happens without any real circumstance between characters which drift in and out
of the plot at random intervals. The film breaks the cardinal rule of
filmmaking – do not be boring. Although, arguably, it can be considered as the
director portraying his views of the world through what he perceives as art, it
is terribly self-indulgent and prophetical. It does not make arguments or
highlight points of importance, it only shows the audience the world as seen through
the eyes of the director. It is a film made for the sake of expressing the
director’s opinions which must be accepted by the audience as the gospel truth
while watching the film. The dialogue delivery of the actors and the minimal
action that occurs is extremely boring. The lack of expression from any of the
actors adds to the overall dragging feel that is emitted from the film.
While it can be argued that the film was made boring by way
of intention on the director’s part since it is a reflection of Cronenberg’s
views of the world, it would only be adding fuel to the flame that Cosmopolis
is just a self-indulgent film which doesn’t care about its audience. It is one
of the extremely rare instances when a film is just downright terrible and
doesn’t deserve to be watched.
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