Film review: Stoker
The English debut of South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook is hell bent on cashing every cinematic chip he banked from a cache of cult built on hits like Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. At its best, Stoker is an over-styled, under-stewed, psycho suspense thriller that is gothic with sexual tension and baroque with visual trickery. At worst, it is a vacuous exercise in aesthetics.
Starring Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode
Director: Park Chan-wook
Category: III
Given its scintillating trailer, Stoker is a major disappointment.
The English debut of South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook is hell bent on cashing every cinematic chip he banked from a cache of cult built on hits like Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. At its best, Stoker is an over-styled, under-stewed, psycho suspense thriller that is gothic with sexual tension and baroque with visual trickery. At worst, it is a vacuous exercise in aesthetics.
Nicole Kidman (above with Matthew Goode) and Mia Wasikowska are mother and daughter grieving after the sudden death of India's father, when a previously unknown relative (Goode) shows up. Naturally, they invite uncle Charlie to stay with them right away. Sensitive emo teenager India (Wasikowska) senses immediately there is something off about her new kin. But Kidman is in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof mode and doesn't notice handsome Charlie's killer smile is more killer than smile, and that he seems to be stalking India openly at her school.
Park's direction is painstakingly cool and deliberate. The colour scheme is rich and gorgeous. The sheen of the lighting matches the set design's retro decor and India's bobby-socks wardrobe, all of which hint at a facade of innocence with a dark taboo in the family basement. But the innuendoes of sex and violence are so overbaked that when revealed, the twists have little shock or surprise value.