MJB784
I enjoy a lot of psychological thrillers, and this one was really confusing. Why is the movie called Stay? What was the big twist at the end? I don't get it, it opened with him in a traffic accident on the golden gate bridge and ended there, but I don't understand the big secret that connects with the middle parts of the movie. How is Henry's father alive and playing chess blind with the psychiatrist and how did the psychiatrist save Henry and why did a lot of scenes repeat themselves? This movie was boring and had no suspense at all.
dutchchocolatecake
I've watched this movie a grand total of two times, and I can honestly say that the point of this movie does not get clearer no matter how many times you watch it. It's not like the Matrix, which is obviously trying to say something. This movie is boring, trite, and relies on good visuals to make up for it's pretentious laziness.I'm surprised this movie has gotten 6.9 stars. There are better movies that do worse than that.In a nutshell, this movie is about a young man's bizarre hallucination before he dies. It's got weird spiritual references about Buddhism, and about how life is just an illusion, etc. The young man acts like Jesus by predicting the weather and healing the blind. Trust me, though, the movie is not nearly so deep as to justify these plot elements. So much of the dialogue and characters are utterly pointless to the ending that it annoys me how much of a waste of time it is to watch it.
Arcaeus
I just watched Stay again and had to change my rating from a 7 to a 10. I had seen Stay many years ago and it had always stuck with me. Probably because after watching it again I know why. Stay presents itself as a masterpiece of art and it does not disappoint. With so much happening it's a little hard to keep up. What it does though is draw you in. A quote from the movie about art states, 'We are drawn to the brightest parts.' After closely analyzing each scene I noticed that there are bright colours all around, subtly drawing us into the movie.Stay is a deep, calculating movie that hits you hard and makes you question your sanity and whether or not the world around us is just an illusion. The film references abstract artists, Shakespeare, and Psychology all throughout which fits well with the abstract camera angles, acting, and thought processes it evokes while watching. With the camera looking at characters on the other side of glass and also reflecting characters in mirrors and other objects, it sends the subconscious mind thinking about whether we are watching the real world like that through our own eyes. With allusions to previous scenes you won't realise at first, double entendres, artistic scenery, camera angles, and subconscious messages, Stay is a visual masterpiece unlike any other film and no other film will ever come close. If you haven't seen it already, watch it.
SnoopyStyle
Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling) survives a car fire on the Brooklyn Bridge. Dr. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) substitutes for Dr. Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo) to treat Henry. Foster's girlfriend is artist Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts). Henry suggests that he may kill himself. Dr. Ren (BD Wong) is willing to commit him before his scheduled suicide. Henry talks about waitress Athena (Elizabeth Reaser) whom he supposedly is going to propose to. There are constant flashbacks to him driving Athena. He claims that Foster's blind colleague Dr. Leon Patterson (Bob Hoskins) is his father.Director Marc Forster's visual style gives off a cold disturbed feel. The whole surreal effect is a bit slow. It's an interesting idea for a style but it doesn't have the needed tension. One could really dissect all the visual clues but the plot feels aimless. It does explain itself in the end but it feels like a cheat. The reveal isn't profound as much as it wraps up the movie. The style could work if the plot has more of a point and a lot more tension. It could also go the other way towards a pointless darker Kafkaesque nightmare. It does threaten to do that at times but it never gets there. Also the movie should be from Henry's point of view rather than from Sam Foster's. It makes less sense with Foster as the lead or else make Foster in the car crash.
AD
