Review of Stay (2005) by Ramin R — 27 Aug 2013

Instead of title "Stay", should really state "Stay away".

A movie with group of A-stars (Ewan Macgregor, Naomi Watts, Ryan Gosling, Bob Hoskins, etc.) end up to such a poorly-written and imagined screenplay. This film might make sense if you were, say, on drugs. I was suckered in by mysterious trailers that made this film seem to be something intriguing and mysterious, and it is that, but people want answers. The whole thing plays out like an ultra-cheesy episode of The Twilight Zone. The movie is so steeped in visual tricks, symbolism, but it became tedious, with each scene trying to be more clever than the last one.

The healing hands giving sight to the blind, what was that? Christian symbolism? The act of redemption?

Why is the lead actor's pants so short? How distracting is that?!

What is the meaning of dejavu moments?

A lot of plot holes and story sometimes is all over the place. Got a feeling that director throws puzzle pieces in your face for you to put them together which in many cases of good thrillers works perfectly, but in this one puzzle is not even defined properly.

There is few scenes of female twins showing up in background (at the university;s art lecture class and leaving the taxi at piano scene). Is there a meaning of this or director ran out of cast members?

Also, meaning of scene with piano....hm?

Hoping always, that in the end the film would redeem itself, I continued to watch, but it never did.

It never went to the big screens for a reason. Really I hope this director never makes another movie.

Overall, movie with great potential of story and idea but very poor delivery and even worse ending, leaving you with: WTF?!