It's disheartening to witness an accomplished filmmaker stumble with a project. That’s essentially the issue with this newest film from celebrated writer-director David Cronenberg, one that seemed promising initially but ultimately doesn't coalesce into a satisfying whole. Karsh Relikh (Vincent Cassel) is a prosperous Canadian businessman struggling with grief over his wife, Becca (Diane Kruger), and he tries to deal with his loss by creating a strange and possibly disturbing technology allowing people to observe the decomposition of their deceased loved ones—a peculiar explanation, really. Based on this concept (and the misleading promotional material), one might expect a story filled with dark, eerie, supernatural elements. However, the film wanders from one diversion to another without purpose or resolution, sending viewers on an aimless journey that feels unfinished and incomplete. This supposed horror movie (which isn’t particularly frightening or captivating) turns out to be more of a mystery/psychological thriller, ultimately constructing a confusing network of plotlines involving shifting instances of international business espionage and technological intrigue, the paranoid (and oddly sexually charged) theories of Becca's conspiracy-minded sister, Terry (Kruger in a double role), the lovelorn longing of Terry’s unstable former husband and skilled computer hacker, Maury (Guy Pearce), and Karsh’s sordid affair with Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), the blind wife of a dying Hungarian business leader (Vieslav Krystyan) who wishes to invest in the expansion of Karsh’s technology for observing graves, among other baffling and seemingly unconnected narrative threads. Complicating matters are the film's slow pace and several lengthy dream sequences that don’t offer much insight. Viewers are left with a genuinely odd presentation. To its credit, the production boasts some creative camerawork, a talented cast, and an unexpected amount of well-placed comic relief (undoubtedly one of the film's strongest points), but these positives aren’t enough to rescue a failing endeavor that continues to sink as it progresses toward its sudden and unsatisfactory ending. It’s certain to prompt many viewers to wonder, “What was the director’s intention?”—a reasonable question, indeed. Cronenberg has created a commendable body of work throughout his career, but it's difficult to understand what he hoped to achieve with this one.

Source on TMDB