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

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!

• Part 1 - "Robert Pattinson giving a commanding, sympathetic portrait!"
• Part 2 - "Sensational central performance from Robert Pattinson"
• Part 3 - Robert Pattinson is "excellent in a difficult role"
• Part 4: Robert Pattinson's performance is "incredible", "riveting", "layered" and "one of the best of the year"
• Part 5: "Robert Pattinson is quite astonishing in the role as Packer"
• Part 6: Robert Pattinson gives "a frightening performance in the best ways and points towards a hell of a career"
• Part 7: "No one will be able to walk away from this movie thinking [Robert Pattinson] can’t act" 
• Spoiler Post #1
• Spoiler Post #2 + Tink's Review from the Toronto Premiere Viewing
• Spoiler Post #3 + Kate's Review from the Irish Press Screening

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.
...
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!
Joblo didn't like the film (4/10) but he had this to say about Rob:

I'm unsure of what the statement being made with COSMOPOLIS is, but it can be said that Cronenberg certainly gets everything he needs out of Pattinson, whose dead-eyed stare and creepy smirk fully capture Eric's soulless nonchalance. The actor doesn't turn in a flashy performance (there's no way he could), but he's an intriguing screen presence with a glimmer of something off just behind the eyes that makes me think he has a career in playing psychos and crazies, not pretty boys. He catches plenty of ire because of TWILIGHT, of course, but after that's all over, I do believe he should seek out quirky, bizarre roles that accentuate his inherent weirdness. Even if Eric Packer is a creep lacking in anything likable, Pattinson proves to be very watchable.

Excerpt from DreadCentral (4.5/5):

By and large the film’s success rests on the shoulders of Robert Pattinson, and he is a complete marvel in the role. It’s clear by now that he’s using the same career trajectory as Leonardo DiCaprio, consciously distancing himself from his heartthrob image by taking the edgiest oddball roles he can find, and he hits a home run here. Even funnier is how the distributor is trying to use Pattinson’s name to sell this movie to the MTV crowd (I would love to be a fly on the wall when gaggles of dumbfounded Twi-hards watch this one). Regardless, it’s pretty clear that Pattinson will go on to be an acting titan once the stench of sparkling vampires has worn off.

Excerpt from MoviesbyBowes:

Holding everything together is Robert Pattinson's performance in the lead. He's good. He's real good. He starts out this icy, remote, almost alien being, then gradually and with the same exquisite precision as Cronenberg's direction, reveals emotional colors, vulnerability, hunger, desire, raw open nerves. Over the course of the movie, as shit gets weirder and the world he's known (and basically ruled) all his life collapses, it's endlessly fascinating to watch the way Pattinson plays Eric Packer's fascination with his own (self-orchestrated) undoing. I'll stop before I get too specific, but goddamn if Pattinson isn't simply tremendous in this movie. If this performance is any indication, he'll do just fine post-Twilight. The dude can act his motherfuckin' ass off, and I hear chicks dig him, so he's got that going for him as well.

Excerpt from FoxNews:

Pattinson’s portrayal of the soulless, empty Packer is unpleasantly remarkable. It’s a crude performance to an even cruder character. Though Packer is as dead inside as the “Twilight” sucker, Pattinson has shown a chilling range in craft. 

Excerpt from KillerFilm (4/5):

I think it is safe to say that Robert Pattinson was a real revelation here, this is his best performance to date. There are no shades of Twilight or a teen heart throb here, instead he is a very cold and collected person who slowly loses it. He goes from great to greater as the film moves from its first act to its third. He seems like a great fit for Cronenberg, and this is evidence that the man is talented with the right material. Those around him are also quite exceptional, Kevin Durand is fantastic and it was actually very cool to see him in a Cronenberg film. Sarah Gadon was perfect as the wife, their relationship is cold and one of convenience. However her scenes with Pattinson are almost hypnotic, the chemistry was quite outstanding for this relationship. I don’t think you can go wrong with Juliette Binoche and Samantha Morton, both of whom are quite memorable. The stand out with Pattinson was Paul Giamatti, and their confrontation was spectacular, it may even be one of my favourite scenes this year.

Excerpt from BlogCritics.org:

I didn't think I would ever admit this, but David Cronenberg has found the perfect use for Robert Pattinson in Cosmopolis (2012). The crooked grin that reveals a fang that will forever betray the role that made him famous, the pale face with a hint of peachy pinkness so inappropriate for such harshly delineated bone structure, the ability of his nose to crinkle disgustedly as if he smells something funny while no one else does – all these invaluable talents of Pattinson’s work great to create the character of the abominable Eric Packer. Hats off to the director. He finally found some use for new Hollywood blood.

GetTheBigPicture is clearly Twilight's biggest fan but the male critic had good things to say about Rob:

It'd be easy to see Pattinson's choice to take this role as a desperate attempt to gain legitimacy after the series that will not be named, but he actually manages to knock this out of the park. Say what you will about what he's done in the past, this role proves he can really act.

Excerpt from Vulture:

Pattinson has just the right level of serenity mixed with physical discomfort: He moves gracefully, and yet we can sense his head bobbing ever so slightly, his hands fidgeting ever so noticeably. His calm is an aspirational one; we can tell he feels none of it.

Excerpt from SheKnows:

Pattinson is wildly wonderful in this bizarre role, especially when those rare moments of vulnerability flash across his face.

Excerpt from CinemaBlend (3/5/5):

Pattinson, capable of an unnerving stillness and a sublimely blank face, is completely in step with Cronenberg's tone-- you can see why the two are eager to work together again.

Excerpt from CapitalNewYork:

Once done of course the impossible is suddenly within imminent, obvious reach. Precision casting has much to do with the success of scenes confined either to a car or the similarly vacuum-sealed bubble Eric inhabits elsewhere (an Arri Alexa D.V. camera and some pretty hokey green screen effects contribute to the feeling of a digital para-world). Breakfast with his wife feels like a postmodern marionette show staged in an otherwise bustling diner; that visit to the barber plays out like an incantatory choral poem. Long takes give dimension to non sequitur strings of dialogue, with Pattinson under particular pressure. For the most part, and especially in a creepy-hot sex scene with a bodyguard (Patricia McKenzie), he projects a commanding, slow-burning detachment.