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Q & A: How Willimon Runs Fincher's 'House ...Sundance Review and Roundup: Park Chan-Wook's Creepy 'Stoker'
Park chose his project cannily: "Stoker" is a simple, straightforwardly universal gothic fable that will play across many cultures. In his introduction in Park City Sunday, Park actually called this coming-of-age story a "fairy tale." Visually and aurally, in terms of the music, sound design and editing, the movie is gorgeous. But some of the iconography is too on-the-nose: saddle shoes, spike heels, insects etc.
The actors do their best with the material, especially Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska, who suddenly lose their husband and father (Dermot Mulroney) in a car accident and are both attracted to a mysterious Uncle (Matthew Goode) who materializes soon after their husband/father dies. But they don't have much to work with. The plot is all-too predictable.
It's tempting to wonder what the film would have been like with Colin Firth in the Uncle played by Goode, who makes a sexy but cardboard villain. He might have brought some depth; he may have figured out why he didn't want to do the role.
Fox Searchlight may be able to sell this high-end horror feature on its top flight elements, but I worry that's it's a 'tweener--not smart-house and not mainstream genre either. Critics may not be kind. See a Sundance sampling below.
3 Comments
Little My | January 22, 2013 5:22 AM
Ummm but Critics have been kind it has received rave reviews from almost everybody except Indiewire's playlist. So...........
Kate | January 21, 2013 6:50 PM
I frequently like Matthew Goode in lighter film fare. He's very charming. But he doesn't have the intensity or the nuance of some of his peers, like Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, or Cillian Murphy. He might be smart to try to carve out a Hugh Grant-like career for himself.