Review: Stoker

Fox Searchlight/Scott Free Productions/Indian Paintbrush

WARNING: possible spoilers ahead! I'll try not to give plot specifics, but in discussing this film's merits, I may drop one hint too many.

That being sad, Stoker is what so many explorations into the mind of a mentally deranged killer wishes they could be. Many TV shows and movies attempt to saturate the viewing experience in the mind and gruesome deeds of a killer, but in all the stories that I've seen, each becomes wrapped up in the psychology or bloody details without fully realizing the potential of the medium of film. Sure, tricks of editing, effects, and cinematography may be used to try and put the audience in the mind of the killer or at the scene of the crime. Yet in the end, the most common result is something to scare, gross out, or appease those who get a kick out of the sight of violence or the idea of those who could and are driven to do such things. While Stoker follows some of these same devices, the technique used pays off more than the story and literal acts themselves to make for an extremely visceral and sensual experience.

Rather than relying entirely on violence, director Chan-wook Park continually attacks and simulates the senses throughout the entire film through an incredibly detailed sound design, cinematography, and editing. For those familiar with Park's Korean films, you know just how shocking this director can be in his technique. Park's Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance are some of the most disturbing, impacting films I've ever seen. Unlike Stoker, these films depict some extremely violent material. As his American film debut, Park retains the same techniques from these films in Stoker but eliminates most of the violence

Fox Searchlight/Scott Free Productions/Indian Paintbrush

As the viewer follows India (Mia Wasikowska in a startling turn of acting bravado) around her family's mansion, through the yard, and down into the basement, it becomes clear that India is no normal young woman. The viewer is subjected to hearing, seeing, and feeling things the way India does. The sound design is meticulously oriented to project every little creak, snap, knock, crack, slice, squish and smash that India's extremely honed senses pick up. The effect is to be put into the mind and senses of this girl in such a way that I have never experienced in a film. At least, I cannot think of one now that succeeds at such a detailed level. The editing follows the sound design and can be jarring and choppy or smooth and floating. The cinematography follows suit and coalesces with the sound and editing with tracking, close-up, wide, racked, hand-held and a host of other kinds of shots. Taken individually, the structure of the editing or cinematography or sound is uneven, random, and without pattern. But when combined and focused on India, the viewer becomes immersed in a way of seeing, hearing, and feeling that is uncomfortable and disturbing but undeniably stimulating.

Fox Searchlight/Scott Free Productions/Indian Paintbrush

It is these factors that make Stoker unique and altogether indebted to Park's sensibilities when it comes to making the viewer squirm. When it comes to the plot, Stoker isn't completely original. It approaches the story of killers deranged from birth in a different way than most films or TV shows, but over halfway through the film it starts to become clear and predictable what is actually going on with India and her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode). The "big surprises" aren't so surprising and the violence not as disturbing as Park's other films, but he more than makes up for these faults with the tone and aesthetic.

Stoker also benefits greatly from Park's experience with Korean cinema and their style of acting. Much more intense and dramatic than what most American audiences are used to, the performances at face value over-dramatic and overplayed. But given the subject matter and style of the film, they work extremely well. Goode is incredibly chilling as the mysterious Uncle who shows up at the funeral of his brother and Nicole Kidman is fantastic as the grieving widow and mother to India. But most of all, Wasikowska proves she has much more to offer than her previous roles as India who begins to suspect her Uncle Charlie has ulterior motives for coming to stay with his dead brother's family that center around her.

Although predictable and unoriginal at times, Stoker is a film to be watched for the visceral and asethetic experience alone. It is definitely a film that will "get under your skin" in the most literal sense of the term.