A Cure For Wellness (Gore Verbinski)

Fysh · 03-03-2017 10:19am #1

Teaser trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mcVodJmBlU

I watched this last night, having had reasonably high expectations based on the trailer, Verbinski's visual flair and DeHaan as the lead. I've come away with mixed feelings about it, so thought I'd start a thread.

There's a lot of good stuff in the film - after a fairly rote opening jump-scare scene it settles into a more confident routine of avoiding jumpscares in preference for a weird, unsettling mood. A lot of care has been put into how a lot of shots are framed and composed, and in keeping with water and surface appearances as key aspects of the story there are a lot of shots - often very inventively composed - built around reflections. The central performance from DeHaan is strong, and ably supports the film throughout.

Unfortunately, the script does have some issues - the first two acts are pretty solid and do a good job of building the tension and weirdness, but come the third act there's a marked increase in reliance on the idiot ball, unnecessary exposition and clunky storytelling. The last half an hour in particular feels very tacked on and tonally very at odds with the rest of the film. I dont think it needed to be two and a half hours long - two hours would've been plenty and I expected it to end after

the scene where Lockhart, fresh from being forced into the treatment program and indoctrinated along the way, is sitting on the bench staring at the sunset while Hannah looks at him with a mixture of disappointment and anger

, only for things to lurch instead towards cliché and hamminess and keep running for another half hour or so.

There's the majority of a really good creepy thriller in there, but it's let down by the ending and some occasional stumbles in the script. Still, it's nice to see a horror thriller with some visual craftmanship, as they don't come along as often as I'd like.

team_actimel · 06-03-2017 3:06pm

One of the weirdest films I've seen, although not a bad film. It was strangely hypnotic and I liked the unpredictability of it. I agree it was definitely too long and some of the scenes were a bit dragged out but I enjoyed the creepiness of most of the film except

the scene between Volmer and Hannah where he attacks her was just bizarre and could have been done in a different way. People in the cinema were laughing at it in shock

Frank O. Pinion · 29-05-2017 8:11am

What a bizarre film, somehow bizarre and boring at the same time. There's always this feeling of something more, something interesting coming...but it's just all style and visuals. There's nothing great or original about the story. The fact that it's 145 minutes long is some sick test of modern audience's patience from Verbinski, I think.

StringerBell · 29-05-2017 9:45pm

Thought it looked and felt very good for the most part, but certainly more style then substance.

charlie_says · 29-05-2017 11:36pm

Really enjoyed the trailer in the cinema.

DvB · 08-06-2017 10:47am

Watched this last night, bags of style but very little in the way of substance, for me anyway. Ultimately disappointing which was a shame as I'd been looking forward to seeing it having seen the trailer a few weeks back.