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Stay (2005)

Drama | Thriller 
Rayting:   6.9/10 75.6K votes
Country: USA
Language: English
Release date: 21 October 2005

This movie focuses on the attempts of a psychiatrist to prevent one of his patients from committing suicide while trying to maintain his own grip on reality.

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User Reviews

travisyoung 20 March 2008

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."

gradyharp 29 March 2006

Fmovies: 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

MadeOfScars 4 September 2006

I can honestly say that this is one of the most incredible movies I have ever seen. I was speechless when I got through with this movie. I just cannot believe how complex this movie is. It had so many levels to it. Mark Forster is an absolute genius.

The plots basically centers around two characters, Sam Foster(Ewan McGregor) and Henry Letham(Ryan Gosling). Sam is a psychiatrist who deals mostly with neurotic stockbrokers, but at the beginning of the movie he is filling in for one of his colleagues. That is how he comes to meet Henry. Henry is a very strange Art student who idolizes this artist named Tristan Reveur. Reveur was a magnificent artist who burned all his paintings and committed suicide on his 21st birthday (he actually told people he was going to do this on when he was 18). Henry decides that he wants to leave the same mark and tells Sam that he is going to commit suicide on midnight of his 21st birthday. It then becomes Sam's job to try and stop him, but during that promise Sam must also fight to keep his own grip with reality.

This movie will mess with your head throughout the entire film. It is a very artistic film, and the whole concept of art (painting, drama, literature, etc.) holds the plot together. The most amazing part of this film however is the complexity of it. I still cannot believe how Forster was able to tie all these characters together the way he did, it really was a work of art. By the time you reach the end of this film you will be utterly amazed. In my opinion this is a true masterpiece. I'm going to leave this with my favorite quote from the movie:

"Bad art is more tragically beautiful than good art, because it documents human failing." - Tristan Reveur

Gordon-11 20 May 2006

Stay fmovies. 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!

nickdove 16 August 2006

As stated in the subject, this film is pure brilliance! The story is not completely original, it draws small inspirations from such films as "Identity", "Fight Club", "12 Monkeys" and even a little "Sixth Sense". But don't let that deter you if you did not care for those films! "Stay" is pure, cinematic genius from beginning to end.

Marc Forster is probably one of the greatest up-and-coming directors of our time. What he's done with this film will make any cinephile drool with delight. There are so many innovative camera techniques that your eyes experience a sensory overload of pure genius. One of these trademarks is a technique where he transitions from one setting to another while still making you think you're in the previous scene for a few seconds. For example, in a scene where we see Ewen McGregor's character in a shop, the camera then switches views to the glass door of the shop, which we see another important character looking through it. The door opens and the character walks through, at which point we realize he was going through a subway door in a totally different scene. Forster uses this technique, as well as many other amazing tricks, throughout, and it's no less brilliant every time we see it them.

As I said, the plot will remind you of a few other movies, yet the actual twisted ending, and the avenue which Forster and the writers take us there, is so completely different and interesting that this film simply must be seen.

McGregor did a fantastic job as psychiatrist Sam Foster, and Gosling was unbelievably realistic and convincing as the mentally unstable patient. Of special note is Bob Hoskin's almost cameo role as Foster's friend Leon. His character is so sympathetic and believable that it almost made me cry.

As usual with such films as last years "The Jacket", this movie was marketed as some supernatural horror film, but it's by no means a horror film. In fact I went into this movie dreading all the jump scenes and disturbing, weirdness that would make me run from my car to my front door at night, but really this is a straight up thriller in the vein of "12 Monkeys" and "Sixth Sense" (minus the ghostly appearances and dead people).

If you consider yourself someone who is tired of Hollywood's big-budget, slam-bang drivel and want to actually have your brain scrambling with thoughts throughout an entire film, RUN, do not walk, and see this film.

DennisH 22 October 2005

It would be cruel to reveal anything about the story before seeing this film because most of the enjoyment is learning which path the story will choose.

The film has masterful visual style. At times it appears to be a normal picture until the surreal aspects make themselves known with subtlety. The editing is seamless, almost but not quite confusing, and the callbacks to earlier scenes are never overused.

It is not a spoiler to state that early on Something Isn't Quite Right, and there are story elements that the avid moviegoer will know to be central to the conclusion. However, it's the path that leads to the end that makes the time enjoyable.

Naomi Watts, as usual, is perfect, and Ewan McGregor has again picked one of the scripts that was for the art and not the money. Ryan Gosling is effective, and Jeanine Garafolo's three minutes were eerie. I'm certain that Elizabeth Reaser will be seen again.

Not a perfect movie, but definitely worth the time if you enjoy surrealistic stories.

8/10

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