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(Miramax)

Set in a Shaker-plain church in a generic countryside, David Cronenberg's film begins (or ends, perhaps -- it doesn't seem to matter much) with superstar computer-game designer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh, blowzy but affectless, like much of the cast) initiating a select group into her new virtual-reality game. For the "Realists," however, this is all blasphemy, and they're out to get Allegra, so she has to go on the lam with an office drone (a bewildered Jude Law) and they wind up hiding out in virtual reality. This is all play -- Cronenberg explored the nature of reality with more conviction and to far more disturbing effect in Videodrome, The Fly, Scanners, and Naked Lunch.