Dead Ringers

(Canada)

Mantle Clinic II. Director David Cronenberg; Producer David Cronenberg, Marc Boyman; Screenplay David Cronenberg, Norman Snider; Camera Peter Suschitzky; Editor Ronald Sanders; Music Howard Shore; Art Director Carol Spier

Jeremy Irons
Genevieve Bujold
Heidi Von Palleske
Barbara Gordon
Shirley Douglas
Stephen Lack

Dead Ringers is about identical twin gynecologists, both expertly played by Jeremy Irons, whose intense bond is fatally sliced when they both fall in love with the same internationally known actress (Genevieve Bujold).

The doctors are renowned, interchangeably taking on the same patients and making public appearances, with no one guessing who's who. Yet one is outgoing, a smooth talker and a ladies man, and the other, more dependent and less sociable. Bujold chooses the shy twin, and from that point, disintegration of the twins bond and their careers sets in.

Director David Cronenberg handles his usual fondness for gore in muted style; a brief scene has the shy twin dreaming of biting apart the skin joining Siamese twins; and the final operation, though bloody, is not lingered over.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1988. Running time: 115 MIN.

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