"You know, I've often wondered why it is we have children in the first place. And the conclusion I've come to is... At some point in our lives we realize things are screwed up beyond repair. So we decide to start again. Wipe the slate clean. Start fresh. And then we have children. Little carbon copies we can turn to and say, 'You will do what I could not. You will succeed where I have failed.' Because we want someone to get it right this time. But not me... Personally speaking I can't wait to watch life tear you apart." -Evelyn Stoker
There are no shortages of thrilling movies being made out there to get the heart pumping. Unfortunately most of them heavily favor shock value and jump scares to jolt the audience out of their seats. But every now and then there comes along a juicy little movie to break the monotonous pattern of cheap thrills.
While first hearing of Stoker, one's first thought would probably be of Bram Stoker. The author who gave us the fantastic tale of Dracula. While that isn't necessarily true, the film does have some vampiric overtones and less than obvious symbolism. India Stoker's life comes to a turn when on her eighteenth birthday, her father Richard dies in a car accident. During the funeral her estranged uncle Charlie shows up and stays at the house, keeping India and her mother company through the funeral arrangements and grieving process. If the plot points sound kind of familiar, there's a reason for that. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," indeed. But while having hints and inspirations from other forms of literature, the film retains it's own identity through and through.
Stoker is directed by Chan-wook Park, a South Korean directer who has given us amazing features like Oldboy (2003), Lady Vengeance (2005), and Snowpiercer (2013). South Korean cinema is an amazing thing to begin with, and when it's combined with Hollywood's abundant skills and budget, it's a beautiful thing to be sure. Little nuances like skillful editing, attention to detail, and not spoon feeding your audience is amazingly refreshing. Not to mention the details of repetition in patterns and behaviors in different scenes. It's been quite some time since we've had a good gothic story grace our western screens.
The highlight in this movie are the three leads. Obviously Matthew Goode is perfect as the mysterious uncle who suddenly shows up on the doorstep, and completely sells the creep factor throughout the film's runtime. But the real highlight of Stoker is Nicole Kidman as Evelyn Stoker, and Mia Wasikowska as India Stoker.
There has never been more tension than between a disagreeing mother and daughter, and this film is exhibit A. Kidman plays the strung out, distracted mother who seems to move on rather fast from her own husband's death. She is equal parts stunning and heinous, and it works so well. Mia on the other hand, plays her character withdrawn and shy around people, but full of curiosity of the world around her. As the film progresses, she tends to point her curiosity in the direction of the delicate balance of life and death.
Stoker is a cinematic wonder and a gothic delight, born from the marriage of eastern and western culture. The way something so evil and dark can be portrayed as beautiful and etherial is a stroke of genius, and I hope to see more from everyone involved.
Just remember not to be too hard on the characters. Before you judge, remember Richard's words to India, "Sometimes you need to do something bad to stop you from doing something worse."