I'm a huge Cronenberg fan, and I love the original. But this remake takes a completely novel stance: it shifts the perspective by changing the gender of the protagonasts, thereby changing the whole narrative. While the story is still told by way of the twins, this time they are twin female gynaecologists, and that changes everything.
Motherhood and pregnancies are no longer an abstract medical issue for aloof specialists; those matters become quite personal, while simultaneously being embedded in a social context. Hence, the original story is changed from a psychological one about symbiotic, co-dependant siblings to one about those same siblings in a social, often sexist context - whilst retaining the bizarre, and sometimes pathological relation between the twins.
This new, female oriented context provides a fresh take on the relation between Beverly and Elliot. It's much more complicated than it was in the Cronenberg version, more nuanced, less psychological, and eventually, even more messed up. And merely by having two female protagonists instead of two males, the problems that they encounter and their ongoing discussions add a new social dimension to the story.
Also: many kudos to Rachel Weisz. Well done, milady.
Motherhood and pregnancies are no longer an abstract medical issue for aloof specialists; those matters become quite personal, while simultaneously being embedded in a social context. Hence, the original story is changed from a psychological one about symbiotic, co-dependant siblings to one about those same siblings in a social, often sexist context - whilst retaining the bizarre, and sometimes pathological relation between the twins.
This new, female oriented context provides a fresh take on the relation between Beverly and Elliot. It's much more complicated than it was in the Cronenberg version, more nuanced, less psychological, and eventually, even more messed up. And merely by having two female protagonists instead of two males, the problems that they encounter and their ongoing discussions add a new social dimension to the story.
Also: many kudos to Rachel Weisz. Well done, milady.