ROBsessed™ - Addicted to Robert Pattinson

Cosmopolis Reviews Part 8: "Complete marvel" and "Simply tremendous" Robert Pattinson "projects a commanding, slow-burning detachment"

UPDATE2: LOADS of great reviews at the top. Old ones under the cut! "Robert Pattinson gives one of the best performances of the year in Cosmopolis."

UPDATE: Top of the reviews, HitFix's Drew McWeeny loved the film and gave Rob much acclaim: "Paul Giamatti almost steals the film in the last ten minutes, and it's a testament to how good Pattinson is in the film that he stands there and refuses to let Giamatti run away with it."

I can NOT get enough of the reviews talking about Rob's performance in the sensational Cosmopolis. I marathoned the film and bought my 8 tickets last weekend. Did you? The film opens wider this weekend. Look out for our post giving you the updates on theaters and make sure you BAT4Rob!

Excerpt from Ants Film giving the film 5 out of 5...ants:

Robert Pattinson is in almost every moment of the film and gives what is without a doubt his career best performance. Pattinson plays Eric Packer with a deep internal rage, like a volcano about to erupt, but with a stone facade. Pattinson able to convey loneliness, fear and greed while being contained in a limo for most of the film. Eric Packer is the center of the film and if Pattinson’s performance was anything less than fantastic the film would have failed. Robert Pattinson gives one of the best performances of the year in Cosmopolis.

Excerpt from South Philly Review:

As the lead character, a cold young man of privilege losing his grip on all things, Pattinson is startlingly fantastic, taken to places by Cronenberg he’s never been as an actor...It’s been years since Cronenberg delivered something this visually and aurally articulate, worthy of numerous viewings and readings. The seemingly random, yet keenly perceptive, brilliance of its words taunts you to keep up....It ends with a ripped-from-the-headlines final act that’s as much a squaring off of classes as any scene concerning the French Revolution. And yet, we take it in as just a riveting, terrifically acted exchange between two men.

Excerpt from Monsters & Critics:

A stunning performance by Robert Pattinson

Excerpt from Larsen on Film, 3.5 out of 4 stars:

Pattinson is very good: clipped, still, yet always a threat. Indeed, he's more of a pained killer here than in the Twilight films. The quick, ideologically dominated dialogue scenes are the heart of the film - "All wealth has become wealth for its own sake," goes one bon mot - and Pattinson easily matches verbal wits with everyone from Juliette Binoche to Samantha Morton to Jay Baruchel.

Excerpt from Miami.com:

But the movie wouldn’t work without Pattinson, who is in every scene and holds the film together with his portrayal of a magnetic tycoon rotting on the inside — a disillusioned man who, having amassed everything he could possibly want, asks if that’s all there is. This is just one possible reading of Cosmopolis: Viewers with the stamina to make it to the end (discipline is required) may have differing interpretations of the final scene, which is often been true of Cronenberg’s best movies. DeLillo’s book, inspired by the dotcom bubble burst, was critical of how online entrepreneurs had reduced the power of money to an abstract commodity (“What does it mean to spend money? A dollar. A million.”)

Excerpt from Red Eye Chicago, 3 out of 4 stars:

In writer-director David Cronenberg’s disturbing, oddly funny “Cosmopolis,” Pattinson’s inherent, detached restlessness finally becomes an asset....Hopefully the actor can bounce back from Kristen Stewart’s infidelity; with the exciting, dangerous “Cosmopolis” he at last proves he deserves roles, not just headlines.

Excerpt from two critics, male (gave it a B) and female (B+), at Reeling Reviews:

Male critic: [Cronenberg's] latest, which takes place mostly in the back of Packer’s cavernous stretch, showcases his star Pattinson – the reason I was reluctant to see “Cosmopolis.” To my surprise, the “Twilight” thespian is the best thing in “Cosmopolis.” I have never been a fan of Robert Pattinson. I dreaded all of the “Twilight” movies (only in part because of Pattinson) and have not developed a great deal of respect for the actor, “Water for Elephants” notwithstanding. Director Cronenberg elicits a good performance from the young actor, one that actually overshadows the film itself.

Female critic: The director has also pushed his star Robert Pattinson out on a ledge past his own acting insecurities, getting Pattinson's most confident performance to date.

Excerpt from Orlando Weekly, 3 out of 5 stars:

Robert Pattinson plays Packer with an assured level of detachment and scorn. Make no mistake, this is Pattinson's film – I can't think of a scene that he's not in – and he isn't called on to show much range or feeling, but does display some strong chops. He plays affectless well, managing to conduct a business conversation with Samantha Morton while the limo is being vandalized and literally shaken back and forth by an angry mob. All he wants is to feel something – anything – and so his planned excursion to the barbershop his dad used to take him to takes on deeper meaning.

Excerpt from Game Redemption, 4.5 out of 5 stars:

Despite Pattinson’s strange New York accent (let’s chalk that up to the surreal tone) he holds his own when sharing the stage with Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti. That is very important given that Cronenberg decides to keep the camera close with long takes and shots. With Pattison taking up the majority of the screen time and screen, a substantial amount of pressure rests on his shoulders to carry the film and he pulls it off.

I'd like to say this one is "meh" because I don't like when critics suggest Rob's blank state is natural but whatever. The guy from Philadelphia Weekly gave the film an A:

Cosmopolis is an ice-cold, woozy nightmare of a movie. The sleek limousine becomes a sort of purgatory, as Eric rides ever-forward at less than 5 mph toward ruin. He fucks, drinks, kills and even treats himself to an epically invasive prostate exam—any opportunity to jolt himself from this all-encompassing numbness, an emotional state at which Pattinson naturally excels. Great casting. 

Excerpt from HitFix, giving the film an A-:

I walked away blaming the movie, but thinking it over for the last week or so, I can't get it out of my head. It's exquisitely made, carefully controlled, a simmering look into the dead empty eyes of Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) as Rome burns around him. Based on a novel by Don DeLillo, it's all character, all mood, a slow surreal ride through Manhattan during a meltdown that seems to have been caused, in part, by his own hubris, and Pattinson is fascinating in the role. He seems to constantly be shifting through a complicated but subterranean inner implosion, pieces of himself shutting down at random, little by little. His stated goal for the day is simple enough. He wants a haircut. Never mind that the entire city seems to be on high alert thanks to the visit of a President and construction and protests and traffic and madmen and giant rats and angry wives and dirty lovers, all complications thrown in the path of Packer as he attempts to make his way across this tiny island, locked inside his sterile bubble.

I do not think I'm out of line when I observe that Robert Pattinson is from outer space. Part of what makes him so compelling in the film is that whatever weirdness Cronenberg throws at him, he rolls with it, staring out of that blank passive face with furious eyes. People race in and out of his personal orbit. He gets a physical from a doctor inside the cab at one point, carrying on a conversation while this guy's got half his arm inside him, and the way Pattinson plays that scene is impressive. On the whole, Pattinson delivers in this difficult role, and I can't picture anyone else tuning in more completely to what Cronenberg has done here.

It helps that Pattinson interacts with truly great performances from the supporting cast. Juliette Binoche shows up to have some sex, drink some booze, and lay some ugly truth on Pattinson's character. Sarah Gadon is Packer's wife, newly married and already looking for a way out, away from this shark-eyed and alien "other" who she has barely gotten to know as a husband. Jay Baruchel and Kevin Durand both do sharp and specific work in small roles here, and there's a wonderful but oh-so-short appearance by Samantha Morton as well. Paul Giamatti almost steals the film in the last ten minutes, and it's a testament to how good Pattinson is in the film that he stands there and refuses to let Giamatti run away with it. He gives as good as he gets. Giamatti is great, giving voice to all the frustration and powerlessness of everyone caught up in these forces at work in the modern world, these soft little boys dressed up in expensive suits, untouchable in their coffins on wheels. Giamatti is determined to break through the expressionless exterior of Packer to find the soft and vulnerable heart, and once he does, he plans to rip it out.
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People lured in by the presence of Pattinson will not be prepared for just how different he is in the film, and I love the idea of people expanding their cinematic appetites because of his mainstream work, only to discover this poison pill.

MORE reviews under the cut!

Click HERE to read the rest

UPDATE: Added Rob mentions from New interview with Paul Giamatti
VIDEO: Paul Giamatti On Filming With Robert Pattinson "He's Really Really Good. I Really Enjoyed Working With Him"

Awwww I love all the praise that Rob is getting from his co-stars, from David and from all the reviews for this movie.

I have that proud Mama Steph feeling

The tone of Cosmopolis is this very straight-faced, serious type of wacky. How did Cronenberg describe the tone to you?

You know, he didn’t, in a lot of ways. I think he just trusted we’d get a sense of it. Even though the dialogue is very odd, you know what his sensibility is anyway, so you kind of know what the tone is. I did something I don’t normally do on a movie…I just came in at the end, after they shot most of the movie, and I asked David if I could watch the footage, because I wanted to see the tone of the movie and what Rob looked like, talked like, and moved like. I felt it was something I needed to see, because I’m playing a guy who always has a fantasy of him in his head. I did ask to see the footage for exactly what you just said: it’s an odd tone. I wanted to just watch some of it, so I could see how I could fit into it and, in some ways, veer off of it.

It is similar to a few of his previous film in how abstract the story can be at times. When you get a script this dense and full of symbolism, do you try to apply meaning to everything or do you just go with it?

In this instance, with this script, I read this whole script many, many times. I usually do that anyway, but, on this, it felt essential for me to read it a bunch of times. It wasn’t about just concentrating on my stuff, partially because it was so interesting. I just had such a good time reading it and thinking about it. Like you said, there’s a tonal thing, and I needed to have a sense of that in my head. I also feel like the character has a real awareness of Rob’s character, so I felt like I needed to know Rob’s character. Certainly, in my scenes, it all had to make crystal sense to me [Laughs].

You mentioned the disappointment you can get when seeing how your performance was handled. With experiences like that, how do you define whether something you’re in is a success or not? Do you mostly focus on the final outcome, the experience, or how your performance ended up?

Now, at this point in my life, I think I look mostly at whether I enjoyed my time at work with my colleagues [Laughs]. When you’re getting older, that becomes the more interesting thing. All the other stuff is out of your hands, so it’s really just about enjoying the work I’ve done. Whether I’m ever good in the work, I don’t know. Whether people enjoy it or not, I don’t know. It’s just about whether I had a good day at work.

Check out the rest of the interview over at FilmSchoolRejects