Interesting ideas and interesting performances, but not all of it ends up working. First, one superficial complaint: the movie feels a bit cheap at times. Lots of simple sets, lots of tight shots, and lots of Viggo Mortensen just crouching on the ground. As another example, the organic based beds and chairs don't feel quite as real (or disgusting) as what I've come to expect out of Cronenberg's practical prop design. According to Wikipedia, the film was originally set for production back in 2003 with a budget of $35 million. While I'm no expert, I suspect that two decades later the actual budget didn't hit that number.

Story wise, the film hits highs and lows in terms of its reliance on exposition. The opening sequence was fantastic, throwing the audience into an unfamiliar world and letting us decipher things on our own. However, pretty quickly we start to get some heavy handed exposition dumps and audience directed metaphor explanations (e.g. the first scene with Wippet, or Timlin's discussion of the "performance art"). Additionally, the story feels a bit disjointed, with not all threads coming together in cohesive ways or getting satisfying resolutions. In fact, one thread felt like it had no resolution whatsoever, perhaps being left on the cutting room floor ([spoiler]the "inner beauty" pageant that Wippet was running that Viggo's character registers for... did I miss something or did that just not come up again?[/spoiler]). Ultimately, I wanted more out of the film's big ideas. It felt like a superficial exploration, presenting a simple binary without enough nuance to keep me thinking.