A few weeks ago I revisited Oldboy, Park Chan-wook’s complex revenge story. Knowing that his new film was not a South Korean production, but his first US / UK production, I was very excited. So being in Boston today and not wanting to wait for it to come to Albany next week I had the opportunity to go and see it.
The film introduces Evelyn Stoker (Nicole Kidman), India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) and Charlie Stoker (Matthew Goode). We meet them at Evelyn’s late husband’s funereal where the daughter, India, is introduced to her uncle Charlie for the first time ever who has just returned from Europe. Charlie decides to stay with his sister-in-law and niece for a while, who live in a beautiful old country mansion somewhere in the United States. Little do the ladies know that uncle Charlie has a different future in his mind for them, other than mourning the death of his brother Richard.
The film starts off slow which I must warn you about. But hang in there, because Chan-wook knows how to make a film. Written by Wentworth Miller, know to some of you as the character Michael Scofield from the television show Prison Break, gives us a dark and disturbing story about a family that I would expect to see in a Hitchcock film. Cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, who has done all of Chan-wook’s films, keeps things stunningly beautiful as you would expect from their films.
I was very satisfied walking out of the theater. All of the actors gave amazing performances of the characters they were given to portray. I would like to see more of India and Evelyn in the aftermath of the events that take place in the film. Things really do get ugly by the end of the film and I couldn’t help but think to myself, what does that do to one’s mind. I do recommend it for people to see that are fans of the director and people who like dark twisted stories. The theater had about several people ranging in age of 65-75 years old. And listening to them on the way out I could tell they were there to see Nicole Kidman in some sort of classy love-type story, they didn’t seem to thrilled with the film as it wasn’t what the expected. Stoker opens at the Spectrum 8 Theaters in Albany, March 22nd.