Review of Stoker (2013) by Hoops2448 — 01 Sep 2013

Chan Wook Park, the acclaimed director of the Vengeance Trilogy brings to life a script by Wentworth Miller in a way no other director could making Stoker a must watch. When India (Mia Wasikowska) finds out her father (Dermot Mulroney) has died she is shocked to learn she has an uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), a suave, sophisticated man who takes an instant interest in her and her mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman).

Completely different from his previous work and a lot more subtle than the previously mentioned trilogy, Stoker is a slick and disturbingly gripping psychological mystery film with a cast so good that everything about it is a pleasure.

Chan Wook manages to marry the light and dark aspects of this story so that they meld together into a film that is set almost entirely in the grey. The camera work and the mise en scene help the film feel not of the norm, not of this Earth while also grounding the film in reality.

However the film really wouldn't work without the fearless performances of Wasikowska and Goode who seem to have perfectly interpreted Miller's words. Kidman is also fantastic as usual as the sultry yet petrified Evelyn, a character Kidman cuts right to the centre of Ultimately the reason stoker works so well and is so good is because it breaks the mold of the conventional psychological thriller thanks to an inventive and oftentimes surprising script and story that brings out the best in Chan Wook's work as he shows the corruption and fear that Charlie brings in his wake.