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| Half-faced Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman and an eerie, full-faced Mia Wasikowska seated for Chan-wook Park's Stoker |
At a country residence which looks (just like the family that lives there) like something from a long-gone European past, a nervous and spiteful young girl and her selfish mother have an up until then unknown, self-satisfied uncle Charlie on visit after the family's patriarch's death in an accident.
Stoker is a horrible film, incredibly overrated (6.9 critic-average score on Rotten Tomatoes), and I think many critics carry their curious awe of its Korean director Chan-wook Park (Oldboy (2003)) on them like a lead jacket with regards to it and are afraid to see through the tiring, artsy jumble that is really served here.
The film has energetic photography (by Chung-hoon Chung (Thirst (2009)), but it's all (unfortunately) wasted on futile gimmicks. The characters are dilly-dallying around, while the protagonist (exciting young Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (In Treatment (2008), TV-series), who I like just as much as anybody) remains hateful and introverted, until she at last proves herself SPOILER just as callous and heinous as the rest of her family, as she starts killing at random.
Stoker also has disgusting, depraved scenes (SPOILER like when our anti-heroine masturbates to her murder fantasy) and an odd, extreme silence through its 3rd act.
Since seeing Oldboy, which didn't at all stun me like it did so many others, I haven't watched Park's films until now with Stoker, which is his first film in English. It is written by actor Wentworth Miller (Prison Break (2005-09)) and was a Blacklist [Internet screenplay database service] entry in 2010.
In my opinion, it's a deadly boring show in hollow style, unnatural design, depravity and bad atmosphere. It is also, tragically, one of the last films produced by Tony Scott (Top Gun (1986)), (along with his brother Ridley Scott and 7 other producers), who, tragically, committed suicide in the Summer of 2012.
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Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 12 mil. $
= Flop
[Stoker only made 1.7 mil. $ of its total gross in the States, which is disappointing, seeing as it is Park's first English-speaking film, shot in America, with big stars. It fared better abroad, although it is unreported where especially.]
What do you think of Stoker?
If you are familiar with more of Chan-wook Park's work, please share your knowledge and feelings in a comment
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