[3]

In this morose and supremely depressing film from Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland), a troubled college student (Ryan Gosling) seeks the help of a shrink (Ewan McGregor), who then investigates the boy’s life to see if there might be any merit to his vow to commit suicide later that week. I might have liked Stay better if it were a reality-based drama, but there’s a shit-ton of mystical, magical mumbo-jumbo about the afterlife drenching the whole movie. Forster and screenwriter David Benioff (Game of Thrones) yank your chain all the way into act three, employing a handful of cinematic gimmicks teasing some sort of profundity that never comes (and can’t possibly come). Brace yourself for flashbacks and nonlinear storytelling when the filmmakers decide to finally tell you what’s really happening… something I suspected right after the main title sequence. (And try not to imagine this movie getting financed because someone thought it could be the next Sixth Sense.) I felt like I was watching an episode of Lost, where every new plot twist or reversal only serves to irritate the piss out of me. So screw this movie. Silver lining? Ryan Gosling’s off-kilter, spooky performance. With Naomi Watts, Janeane Garofalo, BD Wong, and Bob Hoskins.