The movie is visually pleasing for starters. While it's not a requisite, you might want to watch the South Korean film "OldBoy" which was Stoker director's Park Chan-Wook's masterpiece and the film that got him critical acclaim. Going back, it would be a good idea to watch that film to really appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship that was placed in Stoker.
Stoker has some great moments but I have to say that the film is dragging. I wouldn't fault it to the story or the creative team because it was necessary to be slow in exposition. But still it's really slow but I'm going out on a limb here in saying that it's a good kind of slow.
Is it just me or is the director a big fan of subtle expositions featuring unconventional animals. OldBoy for example featured that famous scene where Oh Dae-Su eats an octopus and it takes a couple of moments before the camera even moves away from him.
In "Stoker" we get that and then it gets multiplied to the Nth level with a spider hanging around India's legs and later her nether regions in some key scenes. It also later appears in the movie towards the film's bloody conclusion. Like I said, an affinity for creatures with eight legs.
The film is poignant if not beautiful. While the film is set in the present the visuals and cinematography makes it look like India and her mother, plus the world around them was a parellel universe. After all, what kind of household in Middle America would spend evenings watching a piano performance instead of watching the latest news. There's old school sensibilities even for the school where India studies and and the diner where she goes to for an evening walk (which ends badly for the people involved).
Mia Wasikowska goes on with wowing audiences with her performance. There's something about her role as India here thats worth mentioning. It's probably her 'innocence' and her old world charm. Or it's probably how she portrayed a cold hard b***h towards the end after transformation that sucks viewers in. Either way, she's really pretty here. Oh and don't be surprised for some bits and pieces of nudity from the former "Alice in Wonderlang" star. It's all part of the change and corruption.
A good 'corruption of the innocent' story will only work if the guy playing the role of corrupter is interesting, looks good on screen and has got the acting chops to do so. Fortunately for us, Matthew Goode delivers that. He's the cool uncle that doesn't show any kind of evil side to him. One minute he's good the next thing you know, you're probably being strangled to death with an old leather belt.
While for me there's no real chemistry between Goode's Charlie and Wasikowska's India, there's something raw and unnerving about some of the key scenes from the movie. One scene in particularly that was really awesome was that piano scene where the bad uncle joins the nubile and impressionable niece is a weird sex/piano recital thing which leaves Wasikowska.... spent. No dialogues whatsoever, just kick ass cinematography together with facial expressions and body language It's like those "Nuff Said" issues that Marvel Comics did a few years ago.
Nicole Kidman's appearance here was rather dry for my taste. She's just there for eye-candy. I think the real intention was to give India a run for her money when it comes to vying for Charlie's attention (which makes for a very weird and very awkward triangle). But how things panned out in the movie left her looking like a place filler. While its suggested that theres an alienation that happens between mother and daughter, Kidman's appearance here hammers the point and makes it painfully obvious. Too bad though because she could have owned the role.
Cinematography is the king here and the way director Park Chan-Wook made it look so beautiful is something that's worth mentioning. His use of symbols and various references also helped in fleshing out this one heck of a story.
The only flaw I'm seeing here in the film is the dreadfully slow exposition and pacing. I swear I dozed off a couple of times because of the way every shot was made to look. If this had been edited out better, I'd have given "Stoker" a better score. Still the movie is impressive and if you want a fresh kind of suspense or psychological drama film, then Stoker really is for.
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