Synopsis: An innovative businessman and grieving widower builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud.
Stars: Diane Kruger, Vincent Cassel, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt
Director: David Cronenberg
Rated: R
Running Length: 120 minutes
Disc Review in Brief: Despite Criterion’s typically beautiful presentation, The Shrouds is a tedious misfire that wastes an intriguing premise on bad performances and a script that mistakes personal grief for compelling drama.
Review:
I should have known something was askew when one of the many production company logos played twice before the film began. Twice. David Cronenberg has made challenging but rich films throughout his legendary career. Videodrome, Scanners, The Fly, Dead Ringers — these are movies that linger in your mind for decades. The Shrouds will be forgotten by the time the credits finish rolling…if you even make it to the end.
Karsh (Vincent Cassel, Underwater) is a grieving widower who has invented “GraveTech,” an app that lets users watch their deceased loved ones decompose in real time via cameras embedded in burial shrouds. Yes, really. Karsh maintains a complicated relationship with his late wife Becca’s identical twin sister Terry (Diane Kruger, The 355), while also becoming entangled with the mysterious Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt, Terminator Genisys). When vandals attack the GraveTech cemetery, Karsh stumbles into a conspiracy involving hackers, the Chinese government, and his wife’s former lover.
The premise is intriguing. The opening act establishes a compelling hook. Then everything falls apart. Cronenberg based the film on his grief over losing his wife Carolyn in 2017, which makes the personal stakes understandable. However, personal doesn’t automatically translate to interesting. The screenplay plods through its neo-noir adjacent narrative without generating tension or momentum. Characters explain their motivations in tedious monologues that are more babble than brainy. Plot threads dangle without resolution.
The performances don’t help. Though I like her quite a lot usually, Kruger struggles in her triple role as Becca, Terry, and the voice of Krash’s AI assistant Hunny. Even with her dead-eyes, Holt’s blind trophy wife feels miscast. And Guy Pearce, sporting a distracting wig as Terry’s ex-husband, gives a performance so wildly miscalibrated it verges on unintentional comedy. Howard Shore‘s evocative score remains the one consistent bright spot throughout. It deserves a better film.
Cronenberg has explored grief, technology, and body horror countless times with far greater impact. The Shrouds feels like a filmmaker going through familiar motions without the spark that made previous explorations persuasive. As much as I loathe it, even 1996’s Crash gets to the point eventually. The philosophical questions it raises about death and connection never achieve the depth the premise promises. And then there is the icky misogyny to contend with. Women disrobe are exposed for no discernible reason while Cassel keeps himself tastefully covered like he’s in a Calvin Klein ad — an odd choice that feels less transgressive than simply unexamined.
Criterion’s Blu-ray presentation is, as expected, beautiful. The 1.85:1 transfer looks spectacular. The 5.1 audio cleanly presents Shore’s score which is the best thing the film has going for it. The sole extra is a 17-minute “Meet the Filmmakers” featurette where Cronenberg reflects on his career and the film’s inception. It’s informative but can’t rescue the main feature. Most of Cronenberg’s films have made their way into the collection but looking over the paltry extras, even Criterion seems to be acting only like a Cronenberg completist with The Shrouds.
And hey, I get that some films are acquired tastes. Cronenberg fans have a distinct palate. The Shrouds requires going to lengths I simply couldn’t travel.
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