A spider case: a review of the action thriller "Spiderhead" with Chris Hemsworth
A psychopharmacological thriller about a peculiar prison where Thor watches over the comfort of the inmates.
A unique experiment is conducted on the island with criminals as test subjects. In a prison with special privileges, the prisoners enjoy the perks: they eat delicious food, relax in cozy boxes and even walk in the middle of the mountains, but with one condition: the warden Steve Abnesty (Chris Hemsworth) does pharmaceutical tests. Detainees are injected with various drugs that can control feelings and motivations, as well as coerce different behaviors. Libido, laughter, or fear direct the behavior-just a touch of a touch-tone phone display is all it takes. One of the criminals, Jeff (Miles Teller), does not want to go to a real prison, but begins to suspect that the nature of this research is definitely not humanistic.
Now Joseph Kosinski's "Top Gun" is marching around the world. Judging by box office receipts and reviews, the director's big hit in the big-budget action film genre. But the interval between the shooting of "Top Gun" and the final release was so long that Kosinski managed to cram in another project, a psychological thriller based on George Saunders' story "Escape from the Head Chest" (fortunately for us, the film title turned out to be much more forgiving). You can't have it one time at a time - the interim film, made for Netflix, went under the radar, wasn't a success and didn't seem to impress anyone. Even Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller in the lead roles, and yes, the intriguing concept is all but as interesting as Tom Cruise's desperate stuntman in "Top Gun."
That's not to say that "Spiderhead" reactive pulls all the surprises out of its sleeves and is devoid of any intrigue whatsoever. There's a glossy Chris Hemsworth, combining cunning with boyish simplicity - he runs an island prison and is about to go from methodical experimenter to questionable authority figure (though it's hard to see a scientist in a Zeus-like jock with moldy muscles, of course). There are cold and brutal interiors - impressive in their own right, and one can feel the design stride of Kosinski, who has directed two at least interestingly constructed films, "Tron: Legacy" and "Oblivion." Human testing will prove to be a far more terrifying venture than testing lab rabbits - the experiment will escalate into contentious moral dilemmas, and the so-called "humane" forms of punishment will show their true nature. The initiators of the project will go to any lengths to establish psychopharmacological control over prisoners. "Spiderhead" is an entry into the territory of a plot that has managed to get stuck in its teeth: that of the wondrous new world turning into the worst possible world. Kosinski's arsenal includes an entourage straight out of the car, a concept quite suitable for an episode of some Black Mirror, and, most unfortunate of all, a whole stock of unrealized possibilities.
The stated thriller quickly begins to sag as soon as the script takes on the development of secondary characters. That includes Miles Teller, trying to portray a prisoner with a heightened sense of guilt (the viewer will be tortured with flashbacks the entire movie). Much more so is Gernie Smollett, whose heroine is not a good "dark horse" of the plot. In some places, the film lacks sharpness and impertinence - the audience is tested no worse than the prisoners in the frame, piecing together an hour by the teaspoon of some events. By the third act, "Spyderhead" is on the rails of a classic action movie with fights and escape attempts - the atmosphere of a laboratory thriller, in the tone in which Kosinski worked, disappears without a trace. And the action is unremarkable - the sterile maximum squeezed out of Natflix budgets.
If Kosinski's film pretended to be a social satire, it clearly lacked a cynical intensity and elaboration. The film glides through fashionable spaces without getting too deep into the subject: yes, the animal grin of private companies is exposed again, the myth of the need for penitentiary reforms like the Norwegian prisons is debunked. The invasion of memory, of needs, and of the soul itself is the unheard-of cruelty of modern humanist tactics. But to fuse didacticism into a coherent statement has, alas, failed. The whole thing turned out to be just a pretext for a more down-to-earth event - a physical fight between Teller and Hemsworth with a very unexpected result (someone without Thor's hammer is like without hands). The only bright coloring of "Spiderhead" is the soundtrack, a cheerful selection straight out of the '70s and early '80s. The music makes the whole torturous psychopharmacology look at least a little more gentle.
Had Spyderhead come out in the '70s, like all sorts of utopian projects (for example, Kingsley Hall was an experimental model of anti-psychiatric clinics in London), it would have succeeded because of its resonance with reality: punitive systems replaced by humane ones, with total relaxation, beautiful window views, and a disregard for Jesuit discipline (though, as we know, such projects don't live long - and even the aforementioned Kingsley Hall closed down in its day). The very texture of the past would have infused this story with more meaning and polyphony of meanings. However, we have what we have: a hollowed-out weekend action movie designed to fill the schedule of streaming releases. And, unfortunately, Kosinski's first creative failure - his visionary thinking was out of place here.
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