David Cronenberg puts the human psyche under the microscope here, with the central characters seemingly hypnotised by their own dark compulsions. James and Catherine have an open relationship, proudly regaling each other with the ice-cold details of their latest extra-marital exploits, but a head-on crash involving Holly Hunter provides the catalyst for James's erotic obsession with auto accidents and, after hooking up with Vaughan, who re-stages celebrity car crashes, and his lover, who wears leg braces, both James and Catherine are drawn dangerously deeper into a strange new world. This adaptation of JG Ballard's dark novel was lauded and trashed by the critics in roughly equal amounts, but was notably praised by the previously sceptical Ballard.