Director: Chan-wook Park
Screenplay: Wentworth Miller
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Nicole Kidman, Jacki Weaver
Synopsis is here
In my opinion, Stoker
makes Kim Jee-woon's mediocre actioner, The
Last Stand even more of a bust than I had previously considered. The
bullish and assured direction that is shown scene after scene in Stoker, tells
me that nothing was lost in translation with this piece of work. Everything that needed to be
placed on screen is there for all to see. No transgression is diluted, no
scratch left to itch, just a grubby psychosexual thriller that seeps under
the skin.
For me, a lot of
the unease I felt comes from the heady brew of vulnerability, hormones
and identity crisis I felt for the lead character of India; a young
girl who loses her father (and best friend) in a tragic turn of events (on her
18th birthday). Her closest male bond broken, we see her fragile nature come to
the fore. Symbolised with a simple egg cracking scene, we quickly see the
damage take it's toll. There's no help from the mothers side (an on form
Kidman), she's too far gone. It seems a void needs to filled.
Once again, we're
thrown back into the Southern Gothic (see also Beautiful Creatures, Killer
Joe, Beasts of the Southern Wild) where the landscape is melodramatic and
senses and emotions are heightened. The humid haze of the south appears to be
the perfect sandbox for the likes of Park, whose production is drenched with
rich, scrumptious detail and a near unbearable foreboding tone.
The fashion in
which Charlie trickles into the lives of both mother and daughter is
intoxicating. Manipulating with an emotional wrought mother with drives and
cooking is one thing. But the intellectual seduction of India is laced
with such terse sense of danger. To have such incestuous intimacy is taboo
enough, however, the grave stench of necrosis that Charlie brings with him only
ramps up the tension. Particularly as India, a girl now becoming aware of
her own sexuality seems she may have a penchant for the dark. A piano sequence delights
in it's deviousness.
Some have detailed
how much of Stoker feels derivative, particularly as it's writer Wentworth
Miller (Prison Break) borrowed liberally from sources such as Dracula
(see the title) and Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt for the screenplay. Clearly I
see their point, and yet there's something so forceful about the how the images
are display that I bypassed such things. Elsewhere; Mia Wasikowska hits the
right balance of angst, while Matthew Goode brings the similar sense of menace
that Robert Mitchum held in The Night of the Hunter (1955).
Kidman's portrayal of damaged goods is a sly reminder of how good she
can be with the right material. Watching the mind games unravel may not be
surprising to some, but I found them consistently engaging.
With the so called
summer films begin to seek out other months to grab hold of the all mighty
dollar, I thank goodness for the likes of Stoker still being allowed to be made
and brought to theatres. With so much cinema focused on the pockets of teenage
boys (things that go boom), I am still fascinated in the many movies that
invest in adolescent girls even when they are not the audience. They have been
recently the focal point of the likes of Winter's
Bone (2010), Whip It (2011), Hanna (2011) and Excision (2012). Please don't mistake
my shock as debasement in anyway. I just find a certain depiction of the
teenage girl to be an exceptionally defining image within the movies I
watch. The brew of vulnerability, sense of identity, guts
and hormones nearly always bring involving and entertaining stories. I add
Stoker to the pile.
