TIFF Review: Life after Death in ‘The Shrouds’

Losing a loved one is hard enough without the added agony of having to think about what’s happening to their physical body as it decomposes six feet below ground. Yet, for some, knowing exactly what’s happening can be comforting, assuring the proper path to a soul separating from its shell and a person becoming one with the earth. David Cronenberg’s latest film, The Shrouds, takes that idea and puts it into action with the story of a man whose business is showing people what’s happening with their recently departed who finds that not everyone appreciates his revolutionary technology as much as he’d like to think.

Karsh (Vincent Cassel) is mourning the death of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger), but, as he explains to a blind date during their regrettable first meeting, she’s never far from him. His company, GraveTech, wraps people in shrouds and provides a video feed of their bodies on their tombstones. When a number of graves are vandalized, Karsh seeks answers with the help of Becca’s identical twin sister Terry (also Kruger) and her ex-husband Maury (Guy Pearce), and also develops a relationship with Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), the wife of a dying man eager to fund GraveTech’s expansion into Hungary.

Cronenberg is an institution of the Toronto International Film Festival, referenced in one of the sponsor commercials that airs before each screening. The Toronto native and resident is well-known for his out-of-the-box filmmaking, and that’s very much on display in his latest work, which serves as a meditation on grief stemming from the loss of his wife in 2017. Its actual execution isn’t quite as bizarre as the concepts that go into it, but the best example of a futuristic version of his famous creativity is Hunny, a Siri-like avatar that has an animated body and speaks to Karsh in regular conversation, sometimes pushing boundaries and flirting. Technology is an asset but also a potential villain, as this film covers in its exploration of possibility and risk.

Cassel has worked with Cronenberg on numerous occasions, including past TIFF selections A Dangerous Method and Eastern Promises. The typically excitable actor, who often plays charismatic chatterboxes, is much more subdued in this role, still more than happy to hear his own voice but overcome by longing for the woman he has lost and desperate for whatever connection he can still find to her. He’s in good company with Kruger, who also voices Hunny. Pearce who couldn’t be any more different from his character in another TIFF film this year, The Brutalist, and Holt, a familiar TV face from series like House of Cards, Mr. Robot, and Better Call Saul, is memorable as someone who, despite being blind, has power and reach that transforms the way Karsh acts with her.

This film has much to say about loss and the way that people mourn, embedded within a mystery where the perpetrators are unknown but have managed to get inside the protagonist’s head. There are few definitive answers and no easy ones, which makes this a worthwhile head trip that isn’t too frustrating since what it does provide is more than intriguing enough even without clear explanation. Assisted by a powerful score from Howard Shore, The Shrouds engages with many ideas and packs them into a head-spinning slow-burn thriller that manages to remain unpredictable and thoroughly involving throughout, even if its finale, in typical Cronenberg fashion, doesn’t offer a neat or singular resolution but instead more to contemplate and ponder.

Movie Rating: 8/10

Awards Buzz: Cronenberg isn’t particularly Oscar-friendly, with some of his films earning acting nominations. This may still be too off-kilter for mainstream audiences, but it could also be Cassel’s opportunity to finally earn some international recognition for his terrific work.