Gêmeas: Mórbida Semelhança

The film, Dead Ringers, is based on a true story, of two (male) doctors, from New York city.

It only goes to further the fact that Hollywood's DEAD.

Ok, maybe not 'dead', just yet, but, they're on serious life support.

There's barely ANY film, which are original (and I'm NOT talking about ANYthing based on comic books, or video games).

The studios have done this destruction to themselves - they've gotten to the point that each film 'MUST' cost more. And more, and on,. And on....

Up 'til the 90s, or so, there were films for ADULTS.

There were family films. Comedies. Love stories, and many small quirky films. In fact, I remember when Robert Rodriguez just burst out with his first 'big' film, the major stories talked about how HE FINANCED THE FILM...on his credit cards.

Could you imagine someone tryi g to do that today, ' I see here a charge of 80 million, for costumes, and 95 million for basic budget, and 200 mill...')

You get the picture.

Recycling mold films is just a way of saving money.

It's pointless.

If the studios don't want to continue their accelerating ride to extinction,they best move fast, and think about stopping this idiocy, and making new films, based on NEW material.

This show had me hooked from the first episode. If you can stomach the multiple themes of miscarriage, birth, suicide, drugs, alcoholism and murder; then it's a brilliant story. But it's certainly not easy to watch. What I liked the most was the way it accurately portrays modern capitalism and the lack of humanity that billionaires have towards women's health and healthcare.

It also touches on the very sad but real subject of motherhood, wether is chosen or not. It also shows a very real picture of pre/postpartum depression, miscarriage, death at childbirth and family trauma from all these subjects.

The cast is perfect and each character is played flawlessly. As others said before me, Rachel Weisz certainly deserves an award for her amazing performance.

Upon conclusion of watching all six episodes I read a number of the reviews and felt like I wished that I had seen the original. Perhaps there is some redeeming value in it. I found nothing in this awful story that was edifying.

To be fair the first two episodes were somewhat interesting. Kind of provocative, made me a little patient to see what might unfold. But, by half way through the fourth I had to force myself to continue.

You certainly have every right to question my state of mind that I continued to punish myself and watch the whole twisted meaningless confusing and wasted effort!

Many other reviews pointed to some of the specific failings of this gross production. They were correct. I'll finish by saying you're better off just watching the news.

The series gained good traction after the first half. Production quality was top notch, though was shot a bit dark for my tastes. I think it was a challenge to take the original material and work it into a less Cronenberg and more 21st century theme. I believe it was a success and was just as interesting as the earlier film. I've long been an admirer of Rachel Weisz and was really impressed with her in the dinner scene in episode four at about the 39 minute mark. That's the one that rings award nominations for me. She has had many risky diverse roles in her career and this performance ranks among her best. Dark themes for sure, but executed really well.

This is obviously not going to be everyone's cup of tea but you can admire the tea for its craftsmanship, its body, shape, texture, colour. You can wonder at the tea ceremony and beauty of hostess without caring for the taste of the tea itself.

Dead Ringers is a film that shines light on dark places. Uncomfortable places. Places that we either prefer not to know about or that we push to furthest recesses of our brains, in our attempts to maintain the dissonance of our modern world in our minds.

Rachel Weisz is extraordinary as light and shade, identical twins so physically similar and yet so disparate in nature as to like the Angels Michael and Lucifer. Certainly one of them has designs on playing God.

No one plays a dud role in the film. Poppy Liu plays her typically kooky character. Jennifer Ehle is fabulous as the big bad guy... I would venture to say this is a Meryl Streepesque performance.

I'm not going to pretend I get it all. Some pieces either don't fit together, or I need to (gladly) rewatch for clarity.

From a piece of pure art, the work is terrific. Throw in two Rachel Weisz', a story that is important and a clarion call for the the not very distant future, and the superb dialogue between Eliot and Agnus on the roof top and I gave Dead Ringers 8+