(Credit: Amazon.com)
Directed by
Marc Forster
Cast:
Ewan McGregor …. Sam Foster
Ryan Gosling …. Henry Letham
Kate Burton …. Mrs. Letham
Naomi Watts …. Lila Culpepper
Elizabeth Reaser …. Athena
Bob Hoskins …. Dr. Leon Patterson
Janeane Garofalo …. Dr. Beth Levy
B.D. Wong …. Dr. Ren
The Movie:
Ewan McGregor has made some really interesting choices in his projects in the last few years. For the most part, the actor has stayed away from pedestrian fare to take riskier roles in pictures such as Shallow Grave, his breakthrough, Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge!, Young Adam and Eye of the Beholder. Even when those films haven’t been very good, they at least had interesting concepts and weren’t necessarily “safe” or “Affleck style” pictures to star in. While he did star in one of the greatest franchises of all time and a Michael Bay picture, most of his filmography is laced with edgier movies for smaller audiences. You can now add Stay to that mix.
This film may not be for everyone, but Stay is an endlessly original picture with slick editing and rich performances. McGregor does really good work as Sam Foster, a psychiatrist that’s taken on a new patient in Ryan Gosling’s Henry Letham. Letham’s an odd sort, skinny, pale, and looks rougher by the day. Their first meeting does not go very well as Henry is quite agitated and then leaves abruptly, saying it’s about to hail in the middle of a sunny day. To Sam’s surprise it does begin to hail moments later. During their second meeting, Henry states he’s going to kill himself.
This begins Sam’s odyssey trying to find out more about Henry, and to prevent his suicide. The film is a bit of puzzle, with Foster’s world beginning to go around in circles. Events seem to be happening over and over with little or no reason. All those around him start to lost touch with reality and Sam himself starts to go mad. This is where I’m going to stop talking about the plot, because the less you know, the better the film will be.
What’s left to talk about then? There’s plenty as Director Marc Forster has constructed a wonderfully challenging film, which also happens to be quite stunning visually. Cinematographer Roberto Schaefer and the director give audiences visual clues all throughout the film, making even the backgrounds of the frame portions of the bigger puzzle to be put together. Transitions in this film are marvelous, using a lot of CGI and flashy techniques to move to the next scene. For instance, one scene has Henry standing next to a fountain, which then turns into a photo of the fountain which happens to be in the same room with Sam. Another sequence shows the Brooklyn Bridge, and then a huge hand that reaches out to grab it. The next scene begins with the hand on a chess piece as Sam sits playing with a colleague. So is the journey we take with characters worth it when you get the whole puzzle together? Indeed it is, as an unexpected emotional wallop comes out of nowhere to punch you right in the stomach.
Of course, there isn’t enough flash in the world to keep you interested if you didn’t like the characters. Fortunately, each actor is up to the task. Ryan Gosling is surprisingly good here, casting away his Notebook rep for a character that stamps out cigarettes on his arms. Henry may or may not be crazy, but his character is no less enthralling at any point. This film really makes me take him seriously as an actor and not just a pretty face chasing after Rachel McAdams.
Naomi Watts also gives an emotional performance as Lila, Sam’s girlfriend and former patient. There’s a real energy in this film from Watts, whose Lila has tried to kill herself before. There’s a constant fear that she’s going to try it again that’s right under the surface, heightening this situation with Sam and Henry.
Bob Hoskins and Janeane Garofalo also show up in small portions, but each give memorable turns. Garofalo actually gives one of her few serious performances, as a psychiatrist who’s on the verge of breaking down herself. Hoskins is also given limited screen time, but makes the absolute most with it, making his characters one of the film’s most superb and emotionally deep.
Stay was completely ignored upon its release, but hopefully will earn a cult following on DVD. This is a smart, engaging thriller that’s an absolute visual feast to boot. The editing may be a little too much for the impatient viewer, but astute audiences will find a rewarding experience. This is one of the rare occasions where style and substance meet in harmony.
Score: 8.5/10
The DVD:
The Video
The video here is pretty tremendous as a beautiful print accompanies this stylishly visual picture. A bad print would have really hurt this experience, but the transfer here is really good, doing Cinematographer Roberto Schaefer real justice. The film is presented in both an Anamorphic Widescreen with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and a Fullscreen 1.33:1.
The Audio
The audio track here is just as good, as the subtlety of the film’s score is highlighted nicely. The film’s soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 2 Featurettes, Audio Commentaries, Theatrical Trailer
Scene Specific Commentary with Marc Forster and Ryan Gosling – Where this disc is lacking is in the area of extras. This “Scene Specific” track encompasses about 22 minutes of a 100 minute long film. It’s too bad also, because the track here is pretty witty and informative. There’s so much going on in this film, you wish Fox had just had them do a full commentary.
Scene Specific Commentary with Marc Forster, Matt Chesse, Kevin Tod Haug and Roberto Schaefer. – There isn’t much over lap between these two commentaries, so it makes you wonder why they didn’t just combine them for one track. This one is even a little more fun than the last track, but again, there’s not much there.
Departing Visions – I’d like to go into this Featurette, but it reveals a bit more about the movie than I’d like to tell. It is a pretty moving little seven minutes though.
The Music of Stay Featurette – To get to this vignette, you have to flip the disk over to the Fullscreen side of the disc. This goes through the many different techniques the team of composers went through to come up with Stay’s atmospheric score. This also runs about seven minutes.
Theatrical Trailer – This trailer is an example of how Stay may have been marketed incorrectly upon its Theatrical run. The trailer makes the film look as if it’s a Fincher-esque thriller, which really isn’t necessarily the case.
Score: 4.0/10
