Movie Week - Stoker

via behance.net

I’m really trying to remember how I first encountered the trailer for Stoker.  I want to say maybe it was in the theater?  Maybe The Charles?  I genuinely can’t recall. 

But I do remember being very intrigued.  It was a very well done trailer that gave the briefest hint of what the film was about  but completely captured the tone and mood of the film.  I liked what I saw and I’ve wanted to check out Stoker ever since. 

I’d missed it on HBO Go a couple times, but thankfully the stars aligned for Movie Week. 

Stoker is a film about family.  It’s a weird messed up family, but it’s family just the same. 

I can completely see how people might not dig Stoker.  It’s a film with a unique vision and tone that might not be up everyone’s alley.  It’s one of those films where either you’re down or you aren’t.

I’ve been a fan of Mia Wasikowska from the moment I saw her in In Treatment.  And she does a great job here as a weird young woman with a hint of darkness.   I really enjoyed how the darkness is allowed to develop, so when it first appears we think it’s one thing and by the end we learn the truth. 

Apparently I’m a huge Matthew Goode fan.  I enjoyed him Watchmen.  I dig him on The Good Wife.  And I loved him in Stoker.  I’m trying to think of another actor today who does stillness and measured as well as Goode does. He’s got a magnetism that makes it impossible to blink whenever he’s on screen. 

And it’s not like that he’s going to pounce or you’re waiting for him to snap, you just watch to see what he’s going to do.  Seriously, I find him mesmerizing. 

Another thing I loved in Stoker was the cinematography and directing as a whole.  The shot selection and composition has a grace to it.  It’s masterfully done.  The piano scene is just fine filmmaking all the way around; directing, editing, acting. 

Nicole Kidman is perfectly fine in the role she’s cast in.  She doesn’t have a great deal to do, but she’s solid when she does it. 

Again, I loved Stoker.  I imagine that not many people say that, but I really liked the film.  It satisfied every desire I had of it.  I say check it out if have the time.