Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent but underrated film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

What an utter load of pretentious nonsense. A film should be a story, that story ought to engage you, and entertain or inform you in some way. This film does none of that. I fell asleep twice while I tried to finish it, and I really resented having to watch til the end, I feel I let myself down and ought to have not wasted a full hour and a half on it. Some say it is Lynch-esque. That's simply trying to help justify wasting a small part of your life on it, and imbue it with some sort of historical validation from a supposed great director. The truth is it is Lynch-esque because like some David Lynch films, they're disjointed and disconnected scenes pretending to be art but instead simply being bad stories, badly filmed and with no real flow or point to them. Throughout the film Ewan McGregors character wears trousers much too short which shows him looking slightly ridiculous. Supposedly this is because in one tiny scene he appears to this way to Ryan Goslings character who is lying on the ground looking up at him. Firstly, we don't see that view, and secondly even if we did how could we possibly connect the two things? And even if it was possibly to connect the two things....why?? Why would you make a person seem ridiculous through a whole film just because of one view another person had that we didn't even see? I don't rate Ewan McGregor anyway I think he's highly overrated. Naomi Watts acts very well, but she acts the same person in every single film she does so I don't really rate her either. Honestly, if like me you came late to the party and haven't watched this yet...please, don't! You will regret the waste of time.

Stay is another movie that plays along with a similar theme to other movies such as Donnie Darko, Time Lapse, Triangle, as well as others, so if you don't like movies where you need to use brain power to work out what's going on or want everything explained step-by-step then you'll hate this film. Generally, I don't mind films like this as they can be a break away from the seemingly endless queues of remakes, POV horrors, and IQ-killing actioners.The unfortunate thing is I didn't really enjoy Stay as much as I was hoping I would after seeing the trailers for it, and it's definitely not as good as two of the previous films I mentioned, Time Lapse or Triangle. I guess the one main thing that disappointed me with Stay was that it was SO slow, which these films sometimes are, but for me it just never really got going. I mean events would play out, picking up as they went, but they it would just die back down again. it was all too much stop/start for my liking. I know films such as this can't play out continually increasing in pace etc, but like I say, the lulls just happened too frequently and it was tricky to keep my interest peaked.With that being said, it IS a good story and it plays out decently enough. Some people will probably moan that this story is a "rip-off" of other movies, but that's nonsense because how many movies out there are 100% all original? Not many. This isn't a "rip-off" - it's another addition to this type of psychological genre. Anyway, I digress. The story is an interesting one and it is actually filmed out and edited together very decently with the merging of different scenes done really well. It's very intricately told and is a clever script. I just wish it had a bit more pace to it is all.The film is very well acted out also, especially with Ryan Gosling as Henry Letham. I'm not a massive fan of his, but he does a really good job here, as do Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts.Overall, Stay isn't too bad of a film, especially if you enjoy these bind-benders, but there is better out there.

Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling) survives a car fire on the Brooklyn Bridge. Dr. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) substitutes for Dr. Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo) to treat Henry. Foster's girlfriend is artist Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts). Henry suggests that he may kill himself. Dr. Ren (BD Wong) is willing to commit him before his scheduled suicide. Henry talks about waitress Athena (Elizabeth Reaser) whom he supposedly is going to propose to. There are constant flashbacks to him driving Athena. He claims that Foster's blind colleague Dr. Leon Patterson (Bob Hoskins) is his father.Director Marc Forster's visual style gives off a cold disturbed feel. The whole surreal effect is a bit slow. It's an interesting idea for a style but it doesn't have the needed tension. One could really dissect all the visual clues but the plot feels aimless. It does explain itself in the end but it feels like a cheat. The reveal isn't profound as much as it wraps up the movie. The style could work if the plot has more of a point and a lot more tension. It could also go the other way towards a pointless darker Kafkaesque nightmare. It does threaten to do that at times but it never gets there. Also the movie should be from Henry's point of view rather than from Sam Foster's. It makes less sense with Foster as the lead or else make Foster in the car crash.

Ticking clock drama about saving someone from suicide, and it goes all twirly whirly with perceptions of reality.Is it a slight story, or profound? I dunno. Worth another watch, but I'm sure I won't.The professional critics give it high praise for the story telling through editing, and I did get a few aaah moments, but I was crying out for Naomi Watts to become the centre of the story. Ewan Magregor to me is just not convincing, and Ryan Gosling I can take or leave.There I go - focusing on the actors. Not a good sign.The Shakespeare was good, and I thought I was getting into it: "O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams." Still not happening. I did let it sit for a day, but couldn't appreciate the quality. Maybe I'm being thick, so I'll generosify the rating to 6.