Review of A Cure for Wellness (2017) by Nicholas V — 14 Jun 2017

A Cure for Wellness is a hodgepodge of premises, yet original in how it all ties together. It is gruesome, yet stunningly shot and a visual gem to behold. It follows a "plot" but focuses more on evoking emotions. It's a movie that freely shifts tones at will, but does it with a purpose, rather than haphazardly. This is one of the films I feel could in some ways fit into a "bright horror" genre should that trend emerge. Dane DeHaan isn't great, and his character isn't particularly interesting. Mia Goth on the other hand is phenomenal in certain scenes, while Jason Isaacs oozes a tasty mix of smarm and wickedness.

This is also a movie that can lend itself to theories since it seems to intentionally evade standard logic - a bold move, even for a film about sanity and health being tested. Even so, there are conventional storytelling panels that are ... well, really really conventional. And the beginning segment - barring a couple of scenes I found in retrospect to be extremely crucial - is the weakest and most uninteresting segment of the entire film.

I will say that A Cure for Wellness is One-Watch Worthy.

It's definitely a cinematic experience worth catching in theaters, although if you have reservations about seeing brutal violence, disturbing imagery, some gore, lots of nudity, a sexual assault and eels ... and eels ... and even MORE eels...then absolutely don't go see this one. But if you've seen films like Don't Breathe, The Neon Demon, Pulp Fiction and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and you were some semblance of okay after those movies, then those are the kinds of extremes that you're looking at with this one, and this movie I don't think is as graphic or as brutal as TGWTDT.