Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager finds his day devolving into an odyssey, encountering a host of eccentric characters and seeing his huge financial investments collapse.
Cosmopolis is an adaptation by David Cronenberg. As such, it's generally safe to assume the film may be controversial in some way, thanks to his filmography being known for its body horror; always looking at psychological and physical dissections of the human body and mind. Cosmopolis itself lends itself more towards the intellectual dissection of what it is to be human, and is based on a novel of the same name by Don DeLillo.
This is a Robert Pattinson film that I didn't actually enjoy all that much. Like the convoluted and cryptic exposition scene between Neo and the Architect in Matrix Reloaded, the dialogue in this film is purposefully framed in an unnatural fashion using unnecessarily cumbersome terminology that makes it difficult to understand. Combine this with the fact that around 75% of the film takes place within a stretch limousine, it can easily come across as pretentious and visually bland unless you are truly concentrating on the details of what is going on.
Considering so much of the film occurs inside of a vehicle, it's quite well shot. The length of the vehicle and opulent nature of the stretch limousine provides some extra variety in the direction of camera shots as well as the placement potential of characters, and there are a number of accessories that allow for exposition and narrative direction to be driven from within the vehicle. Outside of introducing interesting characters or events inside of the limousine, the only other way Cronenberg is able to keep these scenes interesting is through changes to what is happening outside, which can only be viewed through the windows. It's the only really interesting aspect of the film.
We have a man who is in the top 1% when it comes to wealth. A man both physically and intellectually separated from everyone else. His dialogue is full of infrequently used jargon and diction, spoken in a way that indicates communicating through speech is not usual. The manner in which he questions everything, Pattinson's character is all about receiving and analysing information than sharing his own information. His mannerisms and behaviour come across as alien; artificial, cold, and inhuman. Pattinson's character Eric Packer is a man so isolated and buffered from the real world, that his knowledge of life is almost theoretical rather than practical.
All of this renders his character incredibly unlikeable. And this is where the big problems come from for Cosmopolis. No characters are likeable. There is nobody that you care about, so when the film is comprised of nothing but essays worth of quickly-mumbled flashy and pretentious dialogue, on a wide range of largely unconnected topics, it is too easy to switch off. In fact, as an audience member, you have to work hard to remain focused on what is going on. From a filmmaking standpoint, the long shots with extensive dialogue show a lot of talent and skill, but for the patrons watching the film, it isn't as engaging as you would want it to be.
There is a lot to decipher. Sure, you could pause the film, grab your dictionary, and translate the discourse to better understand exactly what is going on. You could watch it again, and then pay attention to all of the details being shown through those CGI limo windows. But that isn't an enjoyable film. While a film that you can appreciate more and more with each viewing is a great thing, but you need to be able to enjoy it the first time around. For the general movie watching audience, this will not tick enough boxes.
There is a lot to interpret and unpack, but at the same time, it feels like there is a lot missing from the story too. In the end, a weak narrative direction and unlikeable characters make Cosmopolis a film that I can't really recommend; it is unemotional, sterile, and unengaging.