What if one man's nightmare became another's reality? "Stay," the latest vision from "Monster's Ball" and "Finding Neverland" director Marc Forster, explores a surreal world where the line between life and death, sanity and psychosis and dreams and reality are blurred.
The plot starts slowly, with a man named Henry (Ryan Gosling) walking away from a flaming car wreck. It then jumps to Ewan McGregor's character, Sam, a psychiatrist going into work to take over one of his friend's cases. Surprise: it's Henry, who has been hearing voices and having traumatic experiences since his accident. The first session is short, but during the second, Henry announces that he plans to kill himself in three days at the stroke of midnight.
Shaken, Sam is determined to stop Henry from committing suicide at all costs. Saving Henry is not as easy as Sam had hoped; in fact, the more he learns about Henry's life, the more he starts to question his own reality and sanity. The story twists and turns all the way up to the climax, which, although somewhat predictable and slightly stale, is still capable of making the viewer go back and examine the clues and details.
A more specific description would call for many, many spoilers and would give away some of the fun of the ending. The best summation, however, comes straight from Henry's mouth: "Everything you know is a fucking lie."
A plot like this would not be possible without actors willing to take a risk while being able to fill their character's shoes effectively. McGregor does a wonderful job throughout, putting in a mostly reserved performance while maintaining the energy and turmoil resting just below the surface of Sam. Gosling appears to have figured out how to play an anti-hero perfectly, his dead facial expressions and actions fitting well with his character's mindset. Slightly off is Naomi Watts as Lila, Sam's girlfriend. Her performance is unremarkable and she floats through the film without any memorable lines or a real place within the plot.
"Stay" has an unusual visual style. The scenes transition well into one another and Sam and Henry's separate plotlines collide, making it difficult to see where one ends and the next begins. The whole movie has an industrial look to it, with dark overtones permeating each scene through the clever use of color. As the plot progresses, the colors darken, tracking the descent of each character as their realities shift, merge and crumble before their eyes. Forster's shots can be a bit dizzying and though the cuts are often quick, there are flashes within those cuts that warrant a second viewing, if only to get a better hold on the plot. The visual aspect of movies is not built for demonstrating the psychological facets of its characters, but Forster works hard to get every ounce of trickery out of the screen and into the viewer's brain.
David Benioff's script certainly pulls elements from other low-key thrillers like "Memento," like scenes that loop back on themselves and repetitive dialogue; but when these techniques are used to demonstrate a mental breakdown, the result seems less stale than some recent movies that have followed similar paths. Though there is madness throughout the script, there is also a method in it; the writing controls the fall without making it seem too stilted or too chaotic. In all, the script is taut and well paced, flowing right up to the end credits.
The entirety of "Stay" is devoted to building up to the climax, literally the last two minutes of the film. It contains good but not great acting and a plot that, while throwing a few new spins on an old story, still tends to bring up memories of movies past. The visual aspect of the film fits perfectly with its surreal characteristics, and while some viewers may not enjoy having more questions at the end of a picture than at the beginning, "Stay" at least raises some interesting ones.
