Dead Ringers

4.00
    Dead Ringers
    1988

    Synopsis

    Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire, but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.

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    Cast

    • Jeremy IronsBeverly / Elliot Mantle
    • Geneviève BujoldClaire Niveau
    • Heidi von PalleskeCary
    • Barbara GordonDanuta
    • Shirley DouglasLaura
    • Stephen LackWolleck / Anders Wolleck
    • Nick NicholsLeo
    • Lynne CormackArlene
    • Damir AndreiBirchall
    • Miriam NewhouseMrs. Bookman

    Recommendations

    • 100

      USA Today

      An instant classic, an Oscar-worthy showcase for Jeremy Irons, and a tightrope ballet over dicey screen material… A subtle movie - and thus a disturbing one. Like “Vertigo,” “The Night of the Hunter,” “Repulsion” and a few others, it finds beauty in morbidity - then nags you to come back for a second dose. [23 Sept 1988]
    • 100

      Los Angeles Times

      To think of a film this assured, this unified and this dizzyingly potent, you have to go back to "Blue Velvet." [22 Sept 1988]
    • 100

      Washington Post

      For those who enjoy cinematic visits to other, darker worlds, this blood's for you. Watching Ringers is not unlike watching a critical operation -- unnerving but also enthralling. [23 Sept 1988]
    • 100

      The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

      David Cronenberg's gelid masterpiece.
    • 90

      The New York Times

      What makes the performance(s) even better is that Mr. Irons invests these bizarre, potentially freakish characters with so much intelligence and so much real feeling. [23 Sept 1988, p.C10]
    • 90

      TV Guide Magazine

      Quietly devastating... Extremely unsettling, at times amusing, cold yet personal, Dead Ringers gradually and deliberately comes to horrify the viewer, rather than shocking outright.
    • 90

      Chicago Reader

      An astonishing tour de force--especially for Irons, whose sense of nuance is so refined that one can tell in a matter of seconds which twin he is playing in a particular scene.
    • 88

      Chicago Tribune

      It's almost too rich in ideas for its own good: The sense of concentration and proportion isn't there. But it remains an astonishing, magnetic, devastating piece of work. [23 Sept 1988]

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