Dead Ringers

David Cronenberg, Canada, 1988, 115 minutes

Identical twins Beverly and Elliot Mantle (both played by Jeremy Irons) are world-famous gynaecologists. Beverly is the quieter, more timid bookworm while Elliot is the arrogant, extrovert playboy. However, underneath they are interchangeable even to the extent of sharing their women. Their own abnormality probably contributes to the attraction of Claire Niveau (Geneviéve Bujold), a childless actress who seeks advice at their Mantle Fertility clinic. Beverly diagnoses her to be trifurcate (possessing three cervices). Both twins have sex with Claire and Beverly falls in love with her. Once she discovers the deception and leaves, he deteriorates into alcoholism and drug addiction. While Elliot's career advances, Beverly's regression and obsession with Claire leads him to design and commission "Gynaecological Instruments for Mutant Women". In trying to cure Beverly, Elliot himself becomes hooked and from then on the film charts their decline into infantilism and madness. Gradually their character traits merge and it becomes increasingly difficult to tell them apart - they have become one flesh - vividly exemplified in Claire's horrific dream sequence, Cronenberg's only concession to the gore element of his previous films. Dead Ringers confirms his successful transition into the commercial mainstream with a film whose surface normality disguises a psychological profundity and disturbing content far exceeding that of his earlier work.

Review by Adam Clark
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93