Review of Stoker (2013) by Luigi C — 01 Sep 2013

Stoker deserves some prompts for having amazing cinematography, and splendid mystery atmosphere. Although, Stoker also suffers from a very slow pacing, and does go a long way as the mysterious characters are easily explored.

On India (Mia Wasikowska) 18th birthday, her father Richard (Dermot Mulroney) dies in a car accident. Only left with her mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman). During Richard's funeral, India and Evelyn are introduced to Richard's brother Charlie (Matthew Goode) who has apparently been traveling around the world. Charlie offers to stay and support India and Evelyn. India, and Evelyn both fall for his charms, but only then, some mysterious will also be unraveling about him and the family.

The plot was pretty decent; it is one of those psychological thrillers with an unsettling atmosphere. The story can be very slow as the movie shows the distant India feeling like her world is going upside down after losing her father, until her obsession with her Uncle Charlie appears to help give her support. This would be Park Chan-wook first English debut movie, but I would have to say the dark atmosphere does give many layers of mystery surrounding Charlie and India's character. There is also a twist in the movie, which may be disturbing and kind of predictable. But it was not really a surprising twist.

Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman were both okay with their performances. Matthew Goode did bring a charming like performance as well as a dark mysterious creepy character.

Stoker is a fair psychological thriller film with mediocre results. The mysterious characters were the main things that gave the movie something worth watching. Otherwise, the movie was a bit boring, and predictable.