Review of Dead Ringers (1988) by Blake C — 08 Jul 2007

Oh, Dave. You're like the pit bull next door whom I've played fetch with since I was 6, who one day decides to rip out my throat without warning or provocation.

Especially as a woman, let alone a feminist, I naturally found the idea of a film about Gynecology Gone Wrong entirely unpalatable. However, the archetypal creepiness of the film never quite overpowers Irons' double-duty character development, and thus the narrative manages to maintain its cohesion right to the bitter--and it really is--end. This is a film about Big Questions; personal identity, love, and the creation of life are all topics obsessed over at various points by Irons-X-2 and his pill-popping, infertile (triplicate-wombed) paramour. While I'd love to puzzle over the theoretical implications of the designation of Bujold's character as a "mutant" or "alien," I'm just not sure I can make it through the film again in the next year without fainting. This is Dave at his best--it hurts so good.