Stoker (Full Uncut Version)

South Korean director Park Chan-Wook makes his American debut with `Stoker', a story of 18 year old India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) coming to terms with the loss of her father Richard (Dermot Mulroney). Evie (Nicole Kidman) has not been the best mother to her so far, India's emotional future doesn't look promising.India was always daddy's girl, regularly going on hunting trips with Richard, he even stuffed her kills as mementos of their time together. India is quietly distraught and abandoned, uncomfortable in her home without her father. The brittle and selfish Evie just does not know how to comfort and care for India. Relief appears for both in the form of India's long lost Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode). Mystery surrounds the handsome and cultured Charlie, India didn't know he existed, all Evie knew was that Charlie spent all his time all across the globe on business. Charlie decides to stay at the Stokers home for a while, helping out around the house, trying to develop a friendship with Evie and the mis-trusting India.Considering Chan-Wooks pedigree as a master of stylish ultra-twisted tales, `Stoker' has the right ingredients for another tale of terror with themes of sexual awakening, death, obsession and dark family secrets. However, `Stoker' is quite a conservative film by his standards, `Oldboy' this most certainly isn't! The central arc of the film, of who Charlie really is, is shown too early for me. Wasikowska (looking very much like a young Cate Blanchett) is a suitably unruly mix of menace and innocence, Kidman doesn't really have much to do throughout the film other than look lonely and pathetic. Matthew Goode is excellent as Charlie, a perfect blend of charming devilment, and that's just in those piercing eyes.

What happens when the brilliant director of OLDBOY decides to do his first English movie, STOKER is what happens. The movie is very simple but the way, it has been presented and shown with the visuals really makes this movie a kind of unforgettable experience. Mia Wasikowska playing India the lonely troubled girl coping with her father's death is superb, and so is Matthew Goode who surprised me as the uncle that comes to their house when India's father dies. Nicole Kidman has little to do in the movie but in the end when she does her "Mother knows best" impression is chilly and so demented, I think she got rave reviews as she was so believable as the porcelain mother who is going down her own route of destruction. If there is something that makes me complain is that sometimes the movie is a bit predictable, and maybe its the oldboy effect but the movie did feel a bit too conventional and safe. I do recommend this movie, but do hope that Park-Chan Wook next movie will be much better.

Beautiful videography... a little overrated.brilliant actors but the film drags in parts.interesting plot but could have been tense.

HOLLYWOOD vs THE WORLDThis is one of the few and most representative examples left of Hollywood managing not to spoil a foregin director but to even force him to be more controlled and balanced without losing his style.Some said that this film is a false step in his career, but I prefer not to rely on the clichè according to which, anytime a foreigner works in an american production, he automatically loses his style. As a matter of fact, I remember how Hollywood help great european directors (Fritz Lang, Wilder, Hitchcock, etc...) to even improve their style in the glorious 30s to 50s.THE FILM, THE DIRECTORSo, in my opinion, this is his best movie (yes, better than Lady Vengeance and Old Boy).He tried himself with the need for storytelling and the long tradition of Hollywood noir (starting with Hitchcock, all the way to Polansky, Lynch, etc...)and succeeded.Stoker is a work of art, where every shot and moment is perfect and makes this dark story even darker.Great to see it doesn't need to be long (less than 1 and 1/2 hour long) yet it seems so dense and full of significance and cinema and atmosphere, that you really don't care when some piece don't exactly explain itself. You just let yourself go with this irresistible and unique touch, that Hollywood, still and once again, managed to add value to instead of diminishing. A must-watch and watch again

Came fast and brand new. No marks and still in shrink wrap.

This was definitely a case of style over substance.

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