Stay

I can understand why the reviews for this run the gamut. It's not the type of flick one is likely to appreciate unless they've experienced vivid dreams that seem real and disjoint; cutting from one incomprehensible scene to the next. I'll admit, this movie had me vexed. I was about to throw in the towel when it suddenly struck me: I've had dreams that flowed as incomprehensible! They made sense to me in the moment, yet they made no sense otherwise. Could it be that in his final moments, in a state of shock, Gosling drew on the faces around him in a fantasy to rationalize the tragedy that just became him?

If that's the Director's intent, then this is a brilliant movie and the reviewers who panned it are at a sad lack of imagination.

I saw this in the cinema solely because I had nothing else to do and that Ewan McGregor was in it. I had no idea what it was about. I am so glad that I watched it, because this film left me thinking for ages.

This is a thriller about a psychiatrist (which I happen to be one) trying to help a depressed & suicidal patient. The film twists unexpectedly all the time without getting bizarre. The visual effects are stunning, and the soundtrack created the eerie atmosphere which gave me creeps. The best thing about this film is that the film keeps you in suspense throughout the film, without the use of sudden loud noises, gore or scary scenes. Everything in the film seemed so every day life (to me anyway) and yet it keeps you on the edge all the time. The interspersed scenes of unrelated objects creates suspense in a way that is surreal. In the ending, I was totally surprised at that happened. I had to really think a lot to figure out what happened. Usually, when I don't understand a film, I say it is bad bad bad, but for this film, it leaves me wanting to find out more about it.

I strongly recommend anyone to watch this film!

A quite famous song aside, this movie is quite wicked to say the least. It really needs your full concentration. You need to be there for the whole thing. You can't just watch this while doing something else. Although some might say it's the beginning and end that really matter (no pun intended) - if you miss what happens in between, you are missing out on the whole tale! The thing the director tried to tell you - to spin you right round with (I know another song, I thought while in Rome ..).

The actors involved are superb to say the least which makes me wonder how I never saw this before. It totally escaped me until the other day. I struggled with it too - but it was well worth it to say the least. I did have to check online if I was right with what I was thinking, even if I reckon it is quite obvious ... to a certain extent. Really a movie that messes with you and you may understand or empathize ... well hopefully you do! Cheap tricks and all included.

STAY is a strange bird of a movie, one that you must be rested and in the mood for to watch, and one that asks that you forget the usual linear storyline and stay alert every minute. Directed by Marc Forster (Monster Ball, Finding Neverland, and the upcoming The Kite Runner) and based on a story and screenplay by David Benioff (Troy, The 25th Hour, and the upcoming The Kite Runner!), STAY is more a mind-bending visual excursion that explores some dark psychological questions dealing with life, death, suicide, occult, and a mélange of all of these.

The opening of the film is a twisted visual experience that has to do with a car crashing on a bridge, fire, and a body - all given during the opening credits. We then meet psychiatrist Dr. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) as he encounters a college student patient Henry Lethem (Ryan Gosling) whom he is seeing for his colleague, the emotionally exhausted Dr. Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo). Hesitant to work with a 'substitute psychiatrist' Henry eventually tells Sam he is planning to commit suicide that Saturday at midnight, a re-enactment of his painter idol's absurd life. Sam's artist girlfriend Lila (Naomi Watts) was herself a suicide attempt rescued by Sam and offers her help in dealing with Sam's patient. Sam also gleans advice from his mentor, the blind Dr Patterson (Bob Hoskins) and after numerous attempts to contact his associate Beth for information, Sam strikes out on his own in an attempt to understand Henry before he destroys himself. He looks up Henry's mother (Kate Burton) whom Henry says is dead, discovers when Henry meets Dr Patterson that Henry claims Patterson is his father and is also dead. Ultimately Sam engages the services of a mental institution run by Dr Ren (BD Wong) and gains the promise that the institution will put a hold on Henry so that he will be unable to commit suicide.

In the midst of this race Sam's world begins to crumble, people don't make sense, stories clash, and Sam tumbles around in a state closely resembling madness until the final frames when the entire situation of the film is made clear. Nothing is as it appears when dealing with the thread that separates life and death. The script is clumsy, the camera work is distractingly of kilter, little gimmicks are used to the extreme, and the tiny roles of supporting characters hardly merit the gifted actors such as Hoskins, Burton, and Garofalo. Ryan Gosling is again tossed into a role that is starchy and unidimensional and despite his fine work his character remains aloof. McGregor and Watts do the best they can with the script but end up becoming tropes wandering in from other similar stories.

So why give the film 8/10 score? Because despite all the defects it does engage the mind and forces the viewer to set aside the general principles of understanding and just release the mind to a crazy ride. That is healthy film making and deserves attention. Grady Harp

Ultimately it's a richly textured, multi-faceted look at the relationship between guilt and love, death and life. Suicidal themes run amuck, so, as you can imagine, there are many dark, intense scenes between talented actors. And the performances really are great, as is the mind-bending cinematography. But its way overwritten...the truly brilliant "interesting plot device" mingles but never bonds with the characters or dialogue, so everything falls flat. It's not rewarding, because insignificant elements overshadow details crucial to experiencing the intended impact of the film.

If you want to see an astonishingly filmed, well acted movie, here it is, have fun...But Stay breaks the first commandment of film-making because it takes itself more seriously than its subject. At the end of the day, the message the filmmakers seem to communicate is, "see what we did!" instead of "see what we mean."