A Cure for Wellness is the new horror-thriller
feature from acclaimed director Gore Verbinski. The film tells the story of a
young upward moving company-man for a Wall Street financial firm who is sent to
Switzerland to bring the reclusive CEO back from a sanitarium to handle some
issues back in New York. At the sanitarium the young protagonist realizes that
there may be more nefarious things going on than apparent from the outside. The
film stars Dane DeHaan, Mia Goth, Harry Groener, and Jason Isaacs.
Writing
this review a week after I saw the film was essential for me because, I
confess, I wasn’t fully sure how I felt about the film walking out of the
theater. At the time I felt that I enjoyed the movie and that it was solid
overall. Though that hasn’t necessarily waned, it has become tempered in
various ways. This film got me thinking and trying to dig into the depths of
its concept and recalling a lot of interesting components from the film. That,
by itself, is an achievement. The film kind of fell apart though and I think
the ways that it fell apart makes positively reviewing this film problematic.
Beginning
with the positives, I think this is a really interesting film. The film is relentlessly
mysterious and intriguing. It gets you trying to unravel the mysteries of the
story but also thinking more broadly about why the characters are motivated to
do what they do in the film. I can’t say more than that without spoiling. However,
I will say that even a week later I am still thinking about it and trying to
resolve certain things in my mind. It’s tough for a film to do that and to get
me adequately invested to get into that mental space. That is a major positive
for any film, but it is especially great in a genre film because it is
something that inherently takes you out of reality.
The
film is as thought provoking as it is because of the way it is directed.
Verbinski pulled out all the stops with this film, making something extremely
unique in his own voice. The way he put together this story and assembled all
of the elements to make this film successfully is impressive and a credit to
his ability. The two elements that he really nailed in terms of choices was
selecting Bojan Bazelli for cinematography and Eve Stewart for production
design. The work these two put in on the film was impeccable and really made
this cool and unique. I don’t see enough genre films with as interesting
cinematography as in this film and that is a huge credit to Bazelli. This is
probably going to end up being one of the best looking films of 2017 (and is
the best of everything I have thus far). Stewart also brings a lot with the
production and art design behind this film. The atmospheric thrills brought to
this film would not be there without the very specific unique look Stewart and
Verbinski developed for this film that makes it stand apart from similar films.
The last
positive thing I want to bring up are the performances of Dane DeHaan and Jason
Isaacs. DeHaan is a quietly talented actor. I don’t think this is a
breakthrough role for him by any means, but he felt effective throughout and
managed to be a good viewpoint character for the audience into this weird and
disconcerting world. Isaacs absolutely chews the scenery in this film. He plays
his role up in an extreme fashion that really works in the context of the film.
He adds a necessary flavor to the film that spices up the intrigue and takes it
to a whole new level.
The
film is extremely flawed in its ending, however. I think the way certain
secrets are revealed in the film felt sudden and divergent from the underlying
purpose or message the film seemed like it was attempting to convey. I also
found myself thinking that the way certain things go didn’t feel copacetic with
what was set up in the rest of the film, particularly during the climax. It is
inevitably difficult to explain the nature of the issue without spoiling but,
suffice to say, I found it be very jarring and difficult to accept at the end.
On
top of my problems with the ending the film also had several other failings. It
didn’t adequately explain certain things that it really needed to which left me
rather bewildered. There are moments that felt extremely sudden and out of step
with the rest of the narrative. Finally, the film was, definitively, too long. At
nearly two and a half hours, A Cure for
Wellness does drag and repeat ideas at times. Sometimes this was effective,
but overall I can easily think of a solid amount of film that could be cut to
make this a tighter and more condensed narrative overall.
A Cure for Wellness is, for me, an undeniably
interesting, thought provoking, and visually stunning piece of cinema. I think
it has some serious story flaws, particularly with its conclusion and with its
selective explanation of events. Those issues, coupled with jarring moments and
it being overlong, make me question how good this is overall. The fact that I
haven’t stopped thinking about this is a testament to the quality that it does
have and I will give it the credit it is due as a generally solid piece.
Ryan’s
Score: 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment