Stay

I just barely made it to this film on its opening night at 7:00pm over at Sycamore Mall's Cinema 6 as my taxi was late, but thankfully I didn't have to go to another movie like The Fog or some other shlock showing later and got to my seat at 1 minute before the movie trailers even started.

Starring Ewan McGregor as a psychologist (Sam Foster), Ryan Gosling as a suicidal art student (Henry Letham) and Naomi Watts as Dr. Foster's girlfriend (Lila Culpepper), this film has been dubbed as a thriller, although it isn't really a thriller in the typical sense--more a surreal moving painting where characters and objects in one scene swirl to form new locations and characters in the next.

For the basics, the movie starts out with psychologist Sam Foster taking over care for a patient from a colleague who has suddenly taken a leave of absence. The new patient, Henry Latham, asks why his prior psychologist left and whether he caused it, "Was she sacred of me?" he asks. "Did she have a reason to be scared of you?" Sam responds. We wonder this ourselves as the movie progresses. What is Henry hiding anyway and why is he scared? Can his predictions affect others or influence them?

The movie despite the strange and interweaving film style appears simple on the surface, a complexity of style and ideas wrapping a simple story. Although not as moving as Donnie Darko into the realm of the living, the dead and those who dream along the surface lines of both, this film did remind me a bit of that film. I really can't go too far into detail as to why without giving away major plot spoilers, so I'll stop here.

On the acting field, Ewan McGregor once again does a fantastic job in his role. A bizarre fellow with a strange style of dressing and a childlike neediness, some scenes seem like Sam is the one needing taken care of more than those who he is supposed to be watching over. Ryan Gosling is perfectly suited as a depressed, deeply talented and suicidal art student, while Naomi Watts does a decent job as McGregor's art teacher girlfriend who was his former patient.

I do recommend this film, although it isn't going to be for everyone. If you like movies where you aren't sure what is going on throughout most of it and the end unravels what you thought was real and not real, then you should catch this one. Additionally, the filming style alone feasts the eyes with camera angles shimmering and shifting through scenes which are art in and of themselves. As such, this movie garners a decent rating at the high end of that rank.

Please feel free to comment on this review or on the movie itself at the forum thread devoted to it at this location.