re:mote voices

Title: Stay
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling, Naomi Watts, Elizabeth Reaser, Bob Hoskins, Janeane Garofalo, B.D. Wong, John Dominici, Jessica Hecht
Director: Marc Forster

Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) is standing in for Dr. Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo), who seems to have had some kind of breakdown. Of prime concern is patient Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling), who through some coaxing seems to be suggesting that he is responsible for the death of his parents, and like his favourite artist he intends to kill himself on his 21st birthday, which is in 3 days time. The issue of suicide is a particularly touchy subject for Foster, his own girlfriend Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts) has the scars to prove it. Of course when Foster meets Henry's parents, experiences deja vu and a series of other weird things happen, it is clear that there is something strange going on.

Stay builds tension from the start. Working it up as it gets increasingly weirder. Before delivering the big surprise, the punch line of what is really going on. Of course, one problem is that I, at least, knew what that big surprise was from the start. It was obvious. I have seen the same big twist in half a dozen other films, one of which was in the last month, and read at least one Philip K. Dick novel with the same idea. The problem, to a degree is that the creators of this film behave as though it is a revelation. The question is, is going over this ground again a problem in itself?

In recent interviews for the Pink Panther, Steve Martin talks about how we don't criticise a new production of a play just because it has been done someone else, so why do we criticise films? Of course one of the big issues with the remakes of films is that they are often pale imitations of the previous version. Stay isn't a remake, but the base principal of re-exploring material is still at the core of the thought. It is hard to discuss examples without giving the game away, and while it might be a plot I'm familiar with, there is always the chance that someone reading this hasn't.

The other films I can think of though tend toward horror/thriller, and to a degree there is a thriller subtext here - as Foster desperately tries to find Henry before he kills himself. Stay is a high budget, glossy film, with a director like Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monsterball) that shouldn't be entirely surprising. With that it sets a higher bar visually than some of the lower budget/teen thrillers that have gone before. The director having slipped my mind while I watched Stay, I would have half said that this was someone's first film, graduating from directing pop videos and commercials. Balancing lush dream like sequences with music video sensibilities. There being two scenes that include dancers and lingering shots accompanied by music. Of course to balance that, there are at least three stair scenes, each creating a different spiralling/layering shot that allows the director to play with fancy shots and create certain moods. On the other hand it reminds of the work of Marc Evans (My Little Eye, Trauma), with the quirky suspenseful undertones.

Gradually Stay is one of those films that I become more impressed than I had initially thought I would be. The sense of having seen it all before overwhelms in the first instance. So it takes time for the idea to filter through, that while the material provided here has been done a dozen times before, it has never quite been done like this. To a degree the approach is self-conscious, deliberate. To a degree this feels like a pretentious and self-important film. But I suspect it doesn’t matter, that to a degree Stay is worth seeing for all that.