Stay

Movie Name: Stay
Year of Release: 2005
Director: Marc Forster
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling, Naomi Watts, Bob Hoskins, Janeane Garofalo, Kate Burton, Elizabeth Reaser, BD Wong, John Tormey, Becky Ann Baker
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Netflix

Synopsis and Review

By the time "Stay" premiered, director Marc Forster was already being lauded by two very distinct but equally well received films: "Monster's Ball" and "Finding Neverland". "Stay" which was written by David Benioff, at the time mostly well known for Spike Lee's "The 25th Hour", was his first critical and commercial stumble. The narrative focuses on Henry Letham, a young man whom we first encounter near a car crash that just happened on the Brooklyn Bridge. We soon encounter him meeting a psychiatrist by the name of Sam Foster. Henry's original therapist is currently unavailable, and Sam backfills for her. Henry is initially surprised, but agrees to continue his treatments with this new therapist. Sam in the meantime is having his own personal challenges since his partner, Lila, is a suicide survivor and he constantly worries for her stability. Some odd episodes start happening whenever Sam and Henry meet for an appointment. Henry eventually admits that he is planning to kill himself very soon. After announcing that he disappears, leading Sam on a discovery journey to learn more about the young man and prevent something dramatic to occur to him. He reaches to Dr. Levy, the colleague he's backfilling for, and finds her in her apartment somewhat disoriented and lethargic. Sam keeps running into off kilter situations that contradict the information Henry provided. As the clock keeps ticking and the suicide hour approaches, Sam is desperate to locate and save Henry.

"Stay" is a perplexing film. It has all the condiments to be a memorable and unique narrative, however the film loses itself on a script that attempts to be many things, namely a psychological thriller, a fractured romantic relationship that is attempting to heal itself, and finally a surprise ending, emulating M. Night Shyamalan, that ultimately doesn't work and perpetuates this sense of misdirection that the film has had during its entire run time. It's a difficult film to embrace, particularly since most of the characters are not well defined, and since the structure of the film plays on this lack of information that is volunteered on what is happening, it also makes it more challenging to embrace the journey that any of them is going. Naomi Watts' character, Lila, feels like an extra that adds nothing to the narrative - one keeps expecting her background to be further illustrated or to converge with the main threads of the feature that are taking place, but it never congeals, and her presence is ultimately unnecessary. The film has a stylistic and aesthetically pleasing point of view, but it serves a plot that is poorly constructed, with underserved characters, and by the third chapter, one can't help but feel that this film went on and on, and the big reveal turns out to be a very unsatisfying one (not to mention one that ends up being quite underwhelming). The cast is populated with very talented performers, but they can't do much with the material (or lack of it). The production team is equally top notch, particularly Roberto Schaefer's cinematography and Kevin Thompson's production design. It's mostly a frustrating and pessimistic film, something that would be commendable if the feature wasn't so trapped in its own misdirections.