You know you're in trouble when even the film's title remains a mystery.
Stay (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:117
Fresh:32
Rotten:85
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: A muddled brain-teaser, Stay has a solid cast and innovative visuals but little beneath the surface.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Thriller, Theatrical Release
Synopsis: In the space between desire and fear, between reality and illusion, between life and death lies a whole other alternate world that is brought to life in the mind-bending thriller STAY. From the... In the space between desire and fear, between reality and illusion, between life and death lies a whole other alternate world that is brought to life in the mind-bending thriller STAY. From the acclaimed director of the award-winning Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland, Marc Forster, comes this moving and mesmerizing double story that plunges beneath the surface of ordinary experience to take a man on a spiraling descent through the mysteries of identity, dreams and the very fabric of existence. STAY appears at face value to be the suspenseful story of dedicated New York psychiatrist Sam Foster (EWAN McGREGOR) and his urgent attempt to stop a secretive and unusual young patient he inherited, Henry Lethem (RYAN GOSLING), from carrying out a planned suicide on the eve of his 21st birthday. But behind the primary tale of STAY lies a far more unsettling and surreal mystery: that of the reality-shattering effect that investigating Henry starts to have on Sam. As Sam is drawn deeper into the web of Henry's life -- and then into the labyrinth of his subconscious -- at first it simply puts stress on Sam's relationship with his artist girlfriend and former patient Lila (NAOMI WATTS). But soon Sam's own tightly-held grip on the rational world begins to melt away. Faced with increasingly surreal encounters and a Manhattan transformed into a wildly shifting dreamscape, Sam can no longer figure out what is true and what is happening only in his head, nor where he begins and Henry ends. So just who is Henry Lethem and why is he fracturing Sam's reality so profoundly? As clues and suspense simultaneously build to the story's climax on the Brooklyn Bridge, both Sam -- and the audience must grapple with thought-provoking questions about perception, awareness, forgiveness and final moments of redemption. For it soon becomes clear that what is happening to Sam and Henry is taking place not in this world but in the twilight state between living and dying . . . a place where no one can stay for long. [More]
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Ryan Gosling, Kate Burton
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Ryan Gosling, Kate Burton, Bob Hoskins, Elizabeth Reaser, Janeane Garofalo, B.D. Wong
Director: Marc Forster
Director: Marc Forster
Producer: Bill Carraro, Guymon Casady, Arnon Milchan, Tom Lassally, Eric Kopeloff
Composer: Asche & Spencer
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Reviews for Stay
Ultimately, it's a whole lot of style at the service of a story that adds up to nothing more than a great big 'Gotcha!'
Stay is a heartless puzzle that builds no empathy for its characters, no pathos at all, as it is giving us many cryptic clues that don't really lead to that finale. It's an intellectual exercise, not an emotional one.
You the viewer have the dubious privilege of deciphering what shreds of internal logic the story holds, an exercise that quickly loses its mystique given the sensory overload of imagery and the flatness of the characters.
Too bad that when it comes time to finally produce a rabbit from his top hat, all Forster can manage is a mouse.
There's no payoff as things drag along to a ludicrous ending that reeks of contempt for its audience.
If you do not like Stay, it will not be because of the quality of the acting or the physicality of the setting they work in. Instead, it will be that you cannot or will not understand what Forster & company are on about in their surreal drama.
Stay has all the signs of a look-what-I-learned-in-film-school movie.
The final twist does more to unravel what's come before than to tie it all together, making what's come before feel like a cosmopolitan goose chase.
Whether you guess the ending early or have it smack you upside the head, the result is the same: You'll be out the price of a ticket.
It's hard to imagine a film more perversely obtuse than this dark, grim exercise in cinematic sleight of hand.
The brain power you expend making sense of it is better spent elsewhere.
It all leads to nowhere involving or revelatory or particularly entertaining unless you are interested in Forster's hip, eccentric tastes.
Stay is all dressed up with no place to go, an eye-popping exercise in lavish style unattached to any discernible content.
Latest News for Stay
June 28, 2007:
Ryan Gosling Signs On to Peter Jackson's "Lovely Bones"
The 27-year-old actor will be playing the husband to 36-year-old Rachel Weisz. They'll be playing the parents of a (dead) 14-year-old girl in the Peter Jackson pic. More...
June 20, 2007:
The Next "Bond" Director Has Been Chosen
And it's certainly nobody you'd expect! More...
April 17, 2006:
Casino Royale Enlists a "Vice" Villain
IGN FilmForce notes a 007-related Variety report, and it's news of the casting ... variety: Up & coming actor Isaach de Bankole, seen recently in flicks like Stay and The... More...
March 28, 2006:
DVD Tuesday: Planet of the Ape
Movie geeks love Tuesdays, and here's why: It's DVD Day! With each new Tuesday comes the promise of varying DVD goodness, so I thought it might be fun to do a reminder-piece... More...
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