Genres

Visitors Review

lemonheadt7 2012-05-25 00:20:47

a Taste of Brilliance.

Stay is a piece of cinematic art. It has changed my life in more waysthan one, and I have seen it far too many times. The plot opens up a wide range of acting possibilities, and the endingexplains away what some people would call "strange acting," and makesyou realize just how amazing these actors are. Ryan Gosling does an amazing job in his role as Henry Letham, and everyother role in this movie serves to bring out the brilliance of eachactor. I was even captivated by the acting of the extras.If you're looking at this page to try and decide if you should watchit, then here's a definitive answer: YES.This movie will "stay" with you for quite sometime, and it isdefinitely one of those movies that you are going to want to watchagain the second its over.

2012-05-24 13:57:59

Surreal and out there!

This movie reminds me somewhat of Jacob's ladder. It is visually well done althought the dialogue is drabby and the end explains the movie (if you are open minded enough). What is reality afterall?, a belief?, an experience?, a choice?. Overall: GOOD!

skwrd 2012-05-14 07:50:04

I did not like this movie

I did not like this movie much since the movie provided a lot ofdisjointed movement. The character of Sam violates a lot ofpatient/client trust by including his girlfriend into thepsychoanalysis of Henry. This story is similar to the novel by WilliamGolding where a man falls from the deck of a ship, and he lives anentire lifetime, only to find out that he died in the seconds he hadfrom the deck of the ship to the rocks down below. This movie has Samchasing around the character of Henry like Jack Klugman in Quincy. Ikept thinking, "Why doesn't he call the police?" If a person isactively suicidal, then the mental health community is not going torelease that person after three days: the institution would be heldliable otherwise. I found professional flaws with the movie; however, Iam not naive that this movie presents more than just the literal. Ithink that the acting was good, and the cinematography were great. Iwas pleased by the different locations and scenes. This is a difficultpicture to make. You have entanglement of different lives to connect.You have the disturbing characters to portray. Not an easy task toaccomplish. I would not recommend this film on the notion that thetwist at the end leaves nothing to the passing on of the soul. I thinkthat if Henry's essence is leaving him, then let us have thatrepresentation verses the intertwining of lives seen at the lastmoments of someone's life.

Vampenguin 2012-05-13 15:30:46

Worth renting, but not great

I guess this was a decent enough film, but it was far from perfect. Itwas very well acted, especially on Gosling's part. He almost remindedme of Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko. MacGreggor was pretty good aswell, but not nearly as good as he has been in the past. The plot wasOK, I guess, but the director ruined any surprises it may have had instore. To avoid spoilers I'll just say this: Some very obvious andintrusive symbolism, as well as the way the camera showed certainpeople/objects, revealed much of the outcome long before it shouldhave. For that reason I was pretty disappointed with the ending, thoughthere were some great visuals. Last but not least, I wish that theywould have focused more on MacGreggor's character near the end. We seea lot of him, but I wish they could have gone more into what he wasthinking and feeling. To sum up, I guess this one's worth renting, butI wouldn't spend too much on it.5.5/10

2012-05-09 07:43:47

Just not Satisfied with knowing nothing.....(1.5 Stars)

I know that some people may see this low review and instantly dismiss it, but I beg those few to hear me out. I wanted to love this movie, I like all kinds of films and the movie's premise and dark style drew me in and led me to buy it. Let me start and say Ryan Gosling is one of my favorite young actors, Bob Hoskins I've loved since "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", and director Marc Forster is a good one. That being said the film doesn't ultimately make any sense, atleast in my mind. If that doesn't bother you, then that is fine. The acting is good, there are some intense scenes, some people may be dead, or in a dreamlike state but I couldn't honestly tell you to save my life. What I do know is that I truly love movies..and I have never left a movie feeling so ultimately unsatisfied as I did after "Stay".

Ken Hanke 2012-05-09 03:41:32

Perhaps the most challenging film released this year.

kaitlynn lane 2012-05-04 23:41:16

Everything is lost.

This movie changed me. It was so confusing, but simply wonderful.Everything i though was true was wrong. And everything that was rightwas painful. I cried watching this movie. I cried for the boy because iunderstood him to well. A boy that was trapped in an endless momentthat hurt forever. A moment he stayed in for awhile because he wastrying to understand how he could of done something so awful. Somethingthat was not his fault. This movie takes you to a world whereeverything is lost. A place where the only thing to gain it sanity andclosure. A story told backwards, so a soul can move forward. A storythat has everything you need to make you want to watch it again andagain.

Gordon-11 2012-05-04 10:22:21

Wonderfully executed masterpiece

I saw this in the cinema solely because I had nothing else to do andthat Ewan McGregor was in it. I had no idea what it was about. I am soglad 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 twistsunexpectedly all the time without getting bizarre. The visual effectsare stunning, and the soundtrack created the eerie atmosphere whichgave me creeps. The best thing about this film is that the film keepsyou in suspense throughout the film, without the use of sudden loudnoises, gore or scary scenes. Everything in the film seemed so everyday 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 waythat is surreal. In the ending, I was totally surprised at thathappened. 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, butfor this film, it leaves me wanting to find out more about it.I strongly recommend anyone to watch this film!

Brian Rigby 2012-05-03 08:06:50

Quantum Physics At Its Best!

Warning May Contain Spoilers: This film is really just about quantumphysics where Gosling is already dead. He died at the beginning. Thisis why it's called, "Stay" his "ghost" thinks it is still alive, untilthe anniversay of his death. And McGregor hasn't actually met NaomiWatts yet. He meets her at the end... and asks her to join him for acup of coffee. All the characters in this movie are from Goslingsmemories (that's why Watts and McGregor appear to be already a couplethrough most of the movie, but aren't) . As the anniversary ofGosling's death arrives time runs out. Only then does McGregor realizethat he's met a ghost through time and space subconscious bouts. At theend McGregor's character is in two different locations at the same timein some rapidly passing scenes. This is because there is the real him(in the now) who suddenly realizes he is too late to save Gosling andthe past version of himself (attending the scene of the accident -past). That's why there are all those strange lines because there is acontinuum (a merge of two times, if you will).Do all of you get it now? It's really quite a simple idea. And NO thismovie is nothing like the Sixth Sense. It's much better in the factthat you are taken through past, present and future realities throughall the main characters perspectives.If you like this stuff check out Click, Chasing Christmas and The LakeHouse. All are very cool quantum physics movies!

Bebhinn 2012-05-02 20:14:55

If this is a dream...the whole world's in it...

awesome awesome awesomeawesome awesome AWESOMEif you like psycological dark comedies....this is for you.i pride myself in being able to figure out movies, and this one's still got me. i have only a guess as to what just went on in that movie. it was perfect....i have to see it again, not only to figure it out, but i enjoyed every minute of it!you'll only like it if you like this type of movie...but for it's type, it's perfect!highly reccomended!great story, great technique....and just to add to the perfection...ewan mcgregor's in it.love him in dark comedies! it's what he's made forlove this moviego see it!

behavedave66 2012-04-28 01:45:08

Should I 'Stay' or should I stab my eyes out with a spoon?

I really did think this film was pointless. The storyline is presentedin a visually intriguing way, with repeated themes in the background,people, images etc. However narratively Stay builds itself up into afrenzy of confusion which won't leave you with any significant answersat the end.I guess that's the point of the film, in that it questions the sanityof the main protagonists. Whoopie-do, some shrink's gone a bit bananas.If you want uncomfortable mental health issues unfolding in front ofyour eyes, why not watch Vanessa Feltz on Celebrity Big Brother? OrMemento.

Milos Munic 2012-04-27 14:32:09

A true masterpiece

I can't begin to tell how amazed i am by this movie. The story isphenomenal, the person who wrote it should be awarded. And the way thestory is told is fantastic, the director certainly did an amazing job.I simply cannot believe how this movie got such a low grade. It shouldhave gotten at least 8.5, but i suppose there are a lot of people whodon't understand the movie. The movie is like that, every scene youmiss the less your surprise will be at the end. I watched this movietwo times and i got the impression that this movie is made to be seentwice because there are tons of things in the movie that you don't payattention to the first time you see it because you do not know the end,but if you know the end and see the movie for the second time, manyinsignificant things start falling in to the puzzle and you are onlythen able to completely comprehend every methafore and every part ofthe story. In the end all i can say is that this movie is a truemasterpiece.

Matt 2012-04-27 01:35:24

Great Acting with Great Directing.

No, you must "Stay" to see this movie. This movie has great acting, along with great direction. The visuals are fanatsic.

mags-21 2012-04-26 13:09:55

borrow ideas from The I Inside (2003), but not as good as.

Overall quality of this film is good, if I had never saw The I Inside(2003) before, I would have rated it 9/10.This film borrow ideas from The I Inside (2003), they both deal withillusion when someone suffers death, when the brain try to make areasonable conclusion of what happened by mixing the information pickedfrom reality, previous experience, emotions and wishes.From my point of view the plot of Stay is not as gripping as The IInside, the later one do a better job keeping you trying to figure outwhat on earth happened by keep the brain-made world convincing till thesecond half of the film. Stay just introduced turbulence of the fakeworld at the very start, which may be an approach to giving theaudiences sufficient time to guess and understand the real situation,but fails to interest astute audience like me.

dryadenchantment 2012-04-25 08:31:31

amazing

this movie is blissful confusion, the acting on Ewan and Ryan's partwas amazing, wish we had seen more of Naomi though.. too bad, thismovie is full of twist and turns, if anyone has seen "a spiders web",its a little like that, and a touch like Donnie Darko, minus the crazeddemon bunny, a truly beautifully shot film,the director, and directorof photography,should both be given an awarded for the way it was shot,any one who can appreciate art can appreciate this movie, between theflow shot's, and the fades, it was amazing, and i was in awe, i fullyrecommend it of you haven't seen it, its worth the price of admission,and will loose a great deal of it's affect on a small screen, orregular TV, again i urge you to go see it while it's still in theaters

Michael Booth 2012-04-24 16:54:06

The brain power you expend making sense of it is better spent elsewhere.

2012-04-20 06:19:54

Unforgivably Awful

Sometimes even truly bad movies redeem themselves by providing enough entertainment value in spite of themselves that they still manage to hold your attention for two hours. Then there are the ones that commit the unforgivable sin of being bad *and* boring. "Stay" falls, nay, plummets irretrievably into the latter category.I don't think I've ever been less interested to find out what happens to a set of characters than I was while watching this film. The tone of the film is dreary and bleak; everyone has suicide on the mind in one form or another; and a disjointed series of scenes follow one another without much coherent narrative thread to connect them. The lack of a coherent narrative really kills this film. I'm all for a convoluted, confusing plot that keeps the audience in the dark until the very end, but if you're going to go that route you've got to throw the audience just enough to keep them interested and compelled to keep viewing. A sympathetic character, a good action sequence, people with clear goals to achieve -- hell, Naomi Watts doing a pole-dance just to keep us entertained would have gone a long way toward saving this movie. As it is, we just get a morose Ewan McGregor running around a dark cityscape, being confused about his identity, the identities of the other characters, and generally not doing anything remotely interesting. The main plot thread of trying to prevent his patient's impending suicide gets tangled up and loses momentum almost immediately, leaving the movie aimless and meandering. I assume it ends at some point and provides some resolution to whatever it is Ewan McGregor is trying to accomplish, but I turned off the DVD long before that happens and derived much greater entertainment value by watering my girlfriend's plants. Wow, that African Violet is really starting to bloom!

James Berardinelli 2012-04-20 00:46:58

Stay is interesting, but it's hard to recommend to anyone but the small cadre of David Lynch devotees who will inhale anything with a whiff of similarity to their favorite auteur's scent.

Peter Travers 2012-04-12 19:32:18

Some people find this twisty and twisted psychological thriller arty and pretentious. I find it arty and provocative.

hannahtheblonderagdoll 2012-04-12 02:38:14

Whats 'stay'?

To vote for this film out of ten seems a little unfair at this moment,iwatched it a matter of hours ago and am racking my brain of what onearth went on.I also wish i could say i knew the basic story line but it is awfullytwisted in a subtle way that i cannot do so. The story begins (or so itseems) with a man, Henry, (ryan gosling) sitting down by a burning car.It then moves to an apartment, where Sam (ewan McGregor) awakes. Allthe way through Sam is trying to stop and find out why (to some level)Henry a seemingly troubled 20yr old,wants to kill himself.The film is filled with many linear images & backgrounds,it is possiblethat is a comparison to the twisted vague storyline. However, theunclear storyline becomes clearer the more i think about it.My take on it, is that Sam, the psychologist,has made up most of thestory and what goes on, in his mind. i find this apparent at the end.Ifeel the thought at the beginning is that henry is the main characterand as the story continues, it seems that henry isn't really much partof it, but due to guilt of not being able to save Henry's life at theend(..or beginning) Sam has not been able to shift henry from his mind.The title of the film could be interpreted in two ways, one,being Sam,not able to leave the thought of henry, therefore he's 'stay'ing withhim.Or two,the fact that henry seems reluctant to kill himself, as ifhe wants to 'stay'.overall,it was good, although i need to see it again!