EXISTENZ

Okay, okay, let's admit it. Nothing could be less obvious from any of the shots in eXistenZ (pronounce this with a slightly Germanic accent in order to give it a more intellectual feel). Perhaps Cronenberg (Naked Lunch, The Fly) had in mind Sartre's Nausea. If JP could muster biliousness from merely looking at a beer glass, anyone could surely take a shot at a hearty hurl after investigating the bio-mechanics of one of Cronenberg's amphibian-entrailed game pods.

So what's this movie all about? Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the goddess of game-creators. She's about to introduce a demo of her new game to a group of game-aficionados, when one of them gets up and shoots her with a gristle gun which is basically your average pistol, except that it is made of bone and ... I suppose, gristle. Speak to your dentist before you empty your ammo-clip, because the gun shoots human teeth.

But I digress. The gristle gun is a clue that will later warn the viewer that game and reality no longer striclty speaking constitute two separate modes of existence. It turns out that the shooter represents the Realists, a radical anti-game faction that opposes flights of fantasy and promotes the real world. We never get to see anything like a Realist Manifesto, so we can't be sure what antagonises them so.

Nevertheless, their attack leads to Geller's flight. She is accompanied by Ted Pikul (Jude Law) who should have been her security guard, but turns out to be a marketing trainee who has never played a game, mainly because he doesn't have a "bioport" (an anus-like socket, surgically shot into the gamer's back so that the game pod can be plugged into his/her spinal cord. Don't spend too much money on that DVD drive now).

Allegra, however, is hell-bent on playing the game (for which she needs a partner) in order to establish that the game (the only copy of the software, which is stored in the fleshy game-pod) is still in working order. Allegra Geller is obviously not the goddess of backups. Pikul eventually gets his bioport done by a game-junky cum auto-mechanic played superbly by Willem Dafoe, who, on being asked whether his place of work is in fact a gas station, replies: "Only on the most pathetic level of reality".

And so the game begins. The two main characters plug in and from that moment onwards the audience and the characters alike are overcome by a nagging uncertainty as to the actual status of reality. What is real and what is "the game"? The plot, which is enhanced by images of gratuitous gore of the most repellent sort, more or less captures the audience's attention. There are, unfortunately, one or two extremely lame attempts at pointing out the possible ethical dilemmas virtual reality might conjure up. Is there some moral similarity between shooting a real character and shooting a virtual character?

This movie also has a sensual dimension. For all those who find Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, a joystick stuck together from frog-innards, or a hole in the spine sexy, it's a trip not to be missed.

Having said all that, we must mention that the movie is entertaining enough on a purely fun level. It does not, however, say anything significant about virtual or simulated realities, about real realities, about life and death, about art, or about Chinese cooking.

Apparently Cronenberg made his cast read Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus and Sartre to get into the right frame of mind for the movie. One wonders what kind of game spin-offs to expect. What about Sisyphus (or sisYphyZ) pushing a sack of guts up a hill for ever?

(1. See: http://boston.sidewalk.com/detail/58705
Here you'll also be able to read all about the mysterious link between eXistenZ and Salman Rushdie.)