Suicide among young adults is rampant. Director Marc Foster ("Finding Neverland") captures that brutal reality in the thoughts of a suicidal college student in the film "Stay."
"Stay" is a suspenseful story about a psychologist's attempt to prevent his patient from committing suicide. In his efforts, he simultaneously struggles with his own personal hurtles, including insanity.
The thriller is based upon modern psychology. It takes the audience into the minds of the characters with hallucinations and mind-boggling descriptions.
Foster immediately familiarizes the viewers with the character Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling of "The Notebook"), a third-year student of fine arts who suffers from severe depression.
Gosling's portrayal of a college student hits home. He plays the role with convincing clarity, but his character's perceptions are sometimes devoid of a typical college student's thoughts. The film focused too much on Letham's traumas, shifting the focus away from the reality of daily experiences.
The psychologist, Sam Foster, is played by Ewan McGregor ("Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith"). Foster tries to work with Letham as he simultaneously struggles with his girlfriend's mental illness.
Foster seems to be clueless as to ongoing events throughout the film. He is first introduced as a substitute psychologist for his patient, however he doesn't seem to know enough about psychological illnesses or even about his own life to be a convincing role model for Letham.
Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts of "The Ring") detracts from the film altogether. The character is irrelevant and a nuisance to the plot. Even though Watts' portrayal of a former depressed artist is insightful, her character is too similar to Letham.
Two roles competing to best portray the inner lamentations of a mental patient overwhelm the audience. The roles made Foster's main purpose for the film unpleasantly mystifying.
The film is a decent psychosomatic thriller. The disturbing cinematography makes the movie suspenseful and increasingly entertaining.
However, it exaggerates some psychological images, making the story difficult to follow and interpret. Portions of the movie are confusing and choppy because there are no follow-up scenes to explain a character's actions.
"Stay" repeats some of the themes observed in the motion picture "The Sixth Sense." Like Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), Foster is a psychologist whose understanding may be disabled due to the elements of hallucination and personal dilemmas.
Likewise, both the characters have difficulties in personal relationships. In this movie, Foster's dilemma is that his girlfriend affects the way he treats Letham.
Unlike "The Sixth Sense," "Stay" is lacking in quality and the illumination of the story's events is dull. At the end, "Stay" brings together a collection of ideas portrayed in previous scenes of the film, but it still leaves the audience wondering if the conclusion is just the beginning to a sequel.
