No one could be blamed for a chronic case of reboot fatigue, nor a wariness of recasting for recasting’s sake. Interpreting known characters across race and gender lines is promising in theory, but…
for Jeremy Irons as a pair of codependent gynecologists. Unlike so many of its peers, “Dead Ringers” reaps ample rewards from its central switch, preserving Cronenberg’s signature strangeness while taking the premise to new, surprising heights.
The Canadian auteur is best known for body horror, and pregnancy is one of the most surreal and potentially harrowing feats of which the human body is capable. Naturally, making the main characters of “Dead Ringers” capable of conceiving themselves opens up extra dimensions in their story. One of the first times we meet Beverly, the more reserved and cautious of the Mantle twins, she’s holding her own miscarriage — the latest of many — in the palm of her hand. “Oh, hello,” she whispers.
With the help of some technical wizardry, Weisz makes Beverly and Elliot two completely distinct characters, so much so that we can easily pick up when they’ve switched places for the day, as they apparently often do. Most of the time, Elliot’s hair is worn long and loose, Beverly’s pulled back. It’s a convenient means of telling them apart and telegraphing their personalities, but after just an episode or two, not a necessary one.
The twins’ unsteady equilibrium is further disrupted by outside forces. Around the same time that Beverly strikes up a romance with actor Genevieve , opioid heiress Rebecca Parker offers the Mantles a deal with the devil: complete funding for their center, if they can ignore where the money comes from. Rebecca is transparently a Sackler type, scoffing at the protesters who picket art museums that bear her family’s name. But “Dead Ringers” otherwise dispenses with any pretense of realism.
The more we learn about the Mantles’ ambitions, the more they sound like science fiction: delaying menopause by preserving and implanting one’s own uterine tissue; designing rooms where guests can give birth unmoored from machines. “Dead Ringers” recycles the film’s most indelible image, decking out the twins in blood-red sets of scrubs. But in its new context, Beverly and Elliot’s uniform has a different connotation, making them appear almost like Margaret Atwood’s handmaids.
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