Stoker

I think I've been too harsh on Nicole Kidman.  In the end, I suppose I'm like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams and I haven't forgiven her for getting old.  My brother and I used to watch Dead Calm and Days of Thunder and say some very, very inappropriate things. Like, this one time, my brother said...uh, never mind.  It was really funny though.  In her recent films, though, I find myself thinking of F. Murray Abraham in Star Trek: Insurrection or Sam's mom in Brazil.  Kidman too looks like she has had her skin pulled back by some kind of hack doctor.  Still, her tight face and acting style work well in Stoker, Park Chan Wook's English language debut.

Like Ms. Kidman's acting, Park's directing is tight.  The director has always impressed with his handling of camera and composition.  Oldboy and the rest of his Vengeance trilogy are nearly perfect films.  Stoker may not be perfect, but Park's control of the medium has not weakened in the least.

Stoker is pretty much a film student's wet dream. Any cinephile's mouth should water at all the Hitchcock references.  Stuffed birds and swinging bulbs abound, a la Psycho.  Stoker also counts Uncle Charlie as one of its main characters, a clear homage to Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt.  Visually, Park's film also calls to mind the Technicolor plasticity of Vertigo and Rear Window.  It's really beautiful stuff.

Park's visual motifs are also orgasmic. Is that too extreme?  Hey, I caught myself moaning on numerous occasions when Park would yet again surprise me with his talent. You may wish to bring an extra pair of boxers, or thong, or granny panties, whatever you wear.  Anyway, speaking of clothes...throughout the entire film, the director draws attention to shoes, belts, and other clothing.  India (Mia Wasikowska) receives a new pair of shoes every year on her birthday.  In one particularly beautiful scene, she lies in her bed surrounded by her 18 pairs of shoes.  This wonderful image depicts how boxed up and tied to history India feels.  In the opening sequence India itemizes her attire. Her belt belonged to her father, her skirt to her mother, and her shirt to her uncle.  All these images depict how much India is tethered to her ancestry. Her fate is set.

Another motif concerns the opening of boxes and the digging up of earth.  Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) digs up the garden to place stepping stones.  India unzips her Uncle's overnight bag, attempting to uncover the truth of his history.  She unlocks the bottom drawer of her father's desk and finds several boxes, all containing pictures from her father's childhood.  All these images heighten the sense of mystery in the film.  We want to know what horrors lie in this family's past, what evil currents run under their home.

It is too bad, then, that the solution to the mystery isn't all that satisfying.  Ultimately, Stoker is one more example of an amazing director working with a sub-par script.  Formally, the film is impressive and accomplished.  It is the content that's shallow.  The script is written by Wentworth Miller, that guy from Prison Break.  I'm sorry, Fox TV stars might not be the best choice to pair with a genius director.  Whatever happened to the days of Paul Schrader writing for Martin Scorsese?  It's like putting crappy 87 gas in your Aston Martin.

Still, Park delivers an impressive first film here in the US.  Next to Je-Woon Kim's The Last Stand, this is a solid film.  I am excited for this recent influx of Korean directors to Hollywood, and the director makes me look forward to more stimulating fare.  This is the kind of film you could put on silent at a cocktail party.  You may weird people out and you probably won't get lucky, but it sure is one pretty piece of art.