Day 21: Dead Ringers (1988)

Identity. Who are you? What makes you you? What in yourself gives you the strength to carry on? These questions can be such hard things to peg down. But what happens if the identity you have, the thing that keeps you firmly guided on life’s course, is something you share? Master filmmaker David Cronenberg, delivers, “Dead Ringers,” a tale of identical twins, who lose everything together while trying to gain something apart.

Two genius identical boy wonders, Beverly and Elliot Mantel, grow up sharing everything- prestige for the work as gynecologists, research, which make them wealthy, and even lovers, though the woman always believe they are with Elliot, the ladies man to Bev’s bookworm. But this lifestyle works- it’s the way it has always been- one brother shares his work, the other shares his bedmate. Simple. Everybody wins.

But then there’s Claire Niveau, a famous actress, who seeks out Beverly as a physician in hopes of getting a more positive second opinion about her infertility. At first the brothers lead her down their typical sex-and-switch routine, but then Beverly finds himself actually having feelings for Claire and things go a rye. Elliot protests, saying that if Bev refuses to at least tell him the intimate nature of his affair with Claire then, to him, they never really happened. For the brothers are a team, two who share experiences as one, and Bev’s new love live will hinder this combined life.

But Bev rejects Elliot’s idea of unity and begins taking the care free approach once lived out by his brother. Soon, he becomes addicted to sleeping pills that shield nightmares of he and Elliot as Siamese Twins, and, while Bev grows more of a loose canon by the day, it’s up to Elliot to take charge their lives and medical practice. Their roles have become reversed- the ying is now the yang, and, if either is to find peace again, they must, as Elliot calls it, “synchronize” in every way…every possible way.

If there ever was an actor’s movie, “Dead Ringers” belongs to Jeremy Irons. Taking on most of the film by himself in the duel roles of Elliot and Beverly, Irons finds a delicate way of keeping them apart through careful body language and even speech patterns. It’s said that Iron actually kept the two characters apart by playing one with his weight on the balls of his feet and the other with his weight on his heels- a beautiful example of subtle acting.

And in no way does Irons allow his characters to become the simple good twin/bad twin stereotype. That was never the point. These men, even with their shocking sexual games, are good people helping in a noble medical field and it’s because of this normalcy that Iron’s acting is even more magnificent. It’s easy to be play both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but far harder to be Dr. Jekyll and, well, his less confident identical twin.

“Dead Ringers” is one of Cronenberg’s deepest films. It is a trove of themes from the easily recognized (identity and self-worth) to the more complex (the miracle of birth and the coming of age). We are challenged as an audience, even lead to be confused by the two identical brothers. While they play their game of “who am I,” we as well try to keep track of which is which. Beverly begins to looks like Elliot and Elliot like Beverly at more than just a service level. It is this confusion that overtakes us in very much the same way it consumes the twins and it isn’t till the very end, when all is “synchronized,” that we can see that full tragedy that has taken place.

To learn more about “Dead Ringers,” check out Criterion’s page here.

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