Review of Stoker (2013) by Valerie P — 10 Aug 2014

I wasted my time with this one. Not only that, I wasted a night in which my husband was actually awake for an entire film (more or less). I had read some positive reviews, and noting the great actors, I was all set to watch.

Director Park seemed so bent on creating a piece of art with this film that it often came across as pretentious and overdone. The stop-go camera shots, the odd angles and cryptic focuses; it was all laid on too thick.

My main point of contention, however, was that I just didn't like any of the characters. That was, perhaps, the point; and yet I cannot truly connect to a piece that repulses me from every angle. Without a redemptive story-point to cling to, the audience is set adrift in a sea of "who cares anyhow"?

At the end of the film my only feelings were of disgust and relief. Relief that it was finished, and disgust at the whole damn movie. And I'd grown to like Matthew Goode so much in tv's "Dancing on the Edge".

I was also a bit confused. Up until the last twenty minutes, I was utterly convinced that the plotline had something to do with vampires...