Stay Review
By Joe Lozito
"Stay" Away
There is a trend emerging from this spate of "twist ending" films: they can be judged by how stylishly they are directed. The more straightforward the presentation ("Fight Club",
"The Sixth Sense") the better the film. Rod Serling never needed fancy wipes, jumpcuts or special effects. And he got it done in half an hour. Conversely, when a director has to resort to camera trickery, it is clearly to distract the audience from a lacking script. In the case of "Stay", the writer David Benioff concludes a lackluster trifecta ("25th Hour",
"Troy") with a stylish but meaningless puzzle masquerading as a psychological drama. Even the title doesn't make any sense in the end.
Ewan McGregor trots out his American accent and a parade of ill-fitting tweed suits as Sam Foster, a particularly unconvincing movie-psychiatrist who becomes entranced by a patient who appears to be able to predict the future and vows to kill himself by midnight on Saturday. Mr. McGregor, always a charismatic presence, gives one of his squinty, what-the-heck-is-going-on performances which usually signifies that he's in a bad movie (
"Eye of the Beholder",
"The Island"). Naomi Watts, also playing American, is on hand as Sam's girlfriend, a failed suicide herself. While Ms. Watts and Mr. McGregor have some good moments together, the film has little time for them. The talented Ryan Gosling plays the patient, Henry Letham, as a wound up ball of impending doom, but the film gives him no where to go. Since "Stay" is clearly building up to a "surprise" ending, Henry must remain a cipher and, try though he might, Mr. Gosling isn't able to breath life into Henry.
Through a series of squealing, jumpcut flashbacks it becomes clear that all this nonsense is tied together by a horrific car accident that occurred (or has yet to occur?) on the Brooklyn Bridge. By the time we get to that confounded bridge, the film has asked so many questions that we don't even care about the answers; nothing the film could say would make any sense at that point. And, in that way alone, the film does not disappoint.
Marc Forster continues to be a talented director, but he needs some assistance choosing the right projects. While "Stay" allows him to practice some heretofore unseen directorial sleight-of-hand, he'd be better served by returning to subtler material, like his 2001 gem
"Monster's Ball". I'd even take the sappy "Finding Neverland" over this one. A Shakespearean reference that pops up late in "Stay" is more a propos than the filmmakers may have intended: the film is full of sound and fury but, even with the mindless cheat of an ending, it signifies nothing.
