Stay (2005)

Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, and Ryan Gosling star in this dreamscape. As you slowly slip out of reality, the pieces of the puzzle start to fall apart.

What impressed me most about this film is that it really isn't catering to any genre or viewer class; it clearly joins the ranks of 28 Grams and Pulp Fiction. The camera movements led you to each new scene seamlessly and in the end you understand the purposes of them. Though hints are clearly being dropped from the very beginning, it isn't until the end that the viewer can really appreciate the previous 90 minutes.

Stylistically, this film was a wee bit too clean. Set on a university campus in New York, the buildings were shiny new and I could tell that the production designer had a blast preparing for this film. I prefer films with grittier realism in it's sets. McGregor and Watts wore fabulous clothes, but almost too fabulous to wear.

The plot better be left secret, though the primary setting features Gosling as a very troubled art student who sees McGregor, a psychiatrist. McGregor is dating Watts who had attempted suicide years before.

I was grateful that the film really didn't have a message other than exploring it's subject with gusto.

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