Karsh, a creative entrepreneur who lost his spouse, develops a machine designed to communicate with deceased individuals.

The Garden Cinema View:

You'll likely know within a few minutes whether The Shrouds is to your taste. That is to say whether you can tune into Cronenberg's peculiar register of tone and dialogue that evokes both J.G. Ballard and Don DeLillo (two authors that Cronenberg has adapted brilliantly). This is a painfully autobiographical work for Cronenberg, who lost his wife in 2017. His onscreen avatar is an elegant Vincent Cassel, bearing a rather uncanny physical resemblance to the legendary director.

This is certainly a mournful and moving film, but also contains a subversive strain of humour, and a peculiar eroticism (Ballard smiles in his grave). As The Shrouds shifts into a twisty mediation on conspiracy theories (DeLillo nods approvingly), the narrative threatens to collapse. But, perhaps the nature of conspiracy itself means the core of this intelligent, yet corporeal film, inevitably remains something of a mystery.

Cast:
Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt, Elizabeth Saunders, Jennifer Dale, Eric Weinthal