RUTHERFORD ON FILM
‘Stay’: You’ll Instantly Find Yourself Hooked or Kick Yourself for Buying a Ticket
By Tony RutherfordHuntington News Network Writer
Huntington, WV (HNN) --- New York City police may have “more important things to do” than pick up a depressed college student, but psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) races against a looming midnight deadline when 21-year-old Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling) plans to take his life on the Brooklyn Bridge.
As you might anticipate, “Stay” stealthily tugs at your emotions from its opening scene when Henry sits on the bridge floor as a wrecked burning vehicle eerily light the water. Intriguingly baiting viewers with mesmerizing visual and audio imagery that obfuscates a “noir” reality, the film’s darkly dramatic morsels taunt you with possibilities that constantly unravel. You will likely see “Stay” as a worthy entry alongside “Being John Malkovich,” Scorsese’s “After Hours,” and a lengthy, sputtering “Twilight Zone,” or you will hate the production for waffling a promising concept into something less than extraordinary.
Of course, for either of these conclusions to be made, you have to have an answer for the following question --- “What the hell is going on?” When Henry appears as a troubled student awkwardly dealing with his mistrust for a substitute shrink, he proclaims before shuffling off that “I want to get home before the hail storm.” When his meteorological prognosis comes to pass, Dr. Foster’s doubts rise concerning the patient as a textbook schizophrenic with voices in his head. Strangely, though, Foster’s own grip on reality and illusion escalates as he encounters dead people and grapples with inner conflicts with his own formerly suicidal artist girl friend (Naomi Watts).
As time runs out on intercepting Henry, he will also find a blind man who can now see and discover that the man’s regular shrink has plummeted into an alcoholic and pill popping stupor.
But it’s the repeated glass shattering and time shifting (remember “Groundhog Day?”) editing style formulated by director Marc (“Finding Neverland,” “Monster”) Forster which exposes (or defeats?) daunting spins on illusion and delusion, the conscious and subconscious, and a ethereal state of mind hovering between this world and the next.
Not a film for everyone, “Stay” defies a singular expository dismissal as a predictable dark, muddled script overwhelmed by abrupt character perspective cuts that on the most favorable levels haunt and tantalize and on the lesser end of the vector scale inject senseless visual eye candy into a predictable story.
Whose analysis is accurate? I think many hypotheses can be formulated which makes “Stay” a great share you thoughts and try to checkmate your companion style of flick. And, if you didn’t hate it the first time, a second time around might be helpful.
VIEWER OVERHEARD: “I don’t get it, what happened?”
TONY’S COMMENT: Neither the best of the best or worst of the worst. Destined for cult status…someday! (Or a Rotten Tomato award.)