Stoker

Plot synopsis:
On her 18th birthday, India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska)—a girl with a strong acuteness of the senses—has her life turned upside down after her loving father Richard (Dermot Mulroney) dies in a horrific car accident. India is then left with her unstable mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman). At Richard's funeral, Evelyn and India are introduced to Richard's charming and charismatic brother Charlie (Matthew Goode), who has spent his life traveling the world. He then announces that he is staying indefinitely to help support India and Evelyn, much to Evelyn's delight and India's chagrin.
Shortly after Charlie moves in, India witnesses him argue with Mrs. McGarrick (Phyllis Somerville), the head caretaker of the house. Mrs. McGarrick then disappears. Charlie and Evelyn grow closer and intimate while India continues to rebuff Charlie's attempts to befriend her. Later, India's great aunt Gwendolyn (Jacki Weaver) arrives to visit the family, much to Evelyn and Charlie's dismay. At dinner, Gwendolyn shows surprise at Charlie's claims of traveling the world and tells Evelyn that she needs to talk to her about Charlie.
Gwendolyn ends up changing hotels due to an unexplained fear and suspicion of Charlie. However, she loses her cell phone and tries to call the Stokers' home from her hotel payphone. While she is making her call, Charlie tracks her down and corners her in the phone booth, seeming to be upset. Explaining that he found her through the cab company, he hands Gwendolyn her phone and then strangles her to death with his belt. Meanwhile, India goes into the basement to eat ice cream and discovers Mrs. McGarrick's body in the freezer. She realizes Charlie is a murderer.
Later, India unleashes her inner aggression at school and stabs a bully, Chris Pitts (Lucas Till), in the hand with a pencil after he tries to land a surprise punch to her head. This draws the attention of another classmate, Whip Taylor (Alden Ehrenreich). India goes home and later witnesses Evelyn and Charlie growing intimate and wanders off to a local diner where she runs into Whip. She and Whip go into the woods where they proceed to make out until India aggressively bites Whip. Whip then attempts to rape India until Charlie intervenes, and breaks Whip's neck with his belt. India then aids Charlie in burying the body in her garden. She then attempts to call Gwendolyn, but hears her phone ring deep in the garden, realizing Charlie killed her, too. India takes a shower and masturbates to the memory of the murder, climaxing as she remembers Charlie breaking Whip's neck.
While going through Richard's office to gather things of his she wants to keep, India discovers that a key she received as a birthday present belongs to a locked drawer to Richard's desk. Inside, she finds dozens of letters Charlie wrote to her over the years, which detail his travels and express his love for his niece, although they have never met. However, India discovers that the sending address on the back of the envelopes is from a mental institution. India then confronts Charlie, who explains the truth: Charlie murdered his and Richard's younger brother Jonathan as a child because he was jealous that Richard paid more attention to him. Charlie was then put in a mental institution. When released on India's 18th birthday, Richard gave Charlie a car, a generous amount of money, and an apartment in New York City on the condition that he stay away from Richard's family. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Charlie beat Richard to death with a rock and staged the car accident.
At first, India is in shock and angered. However, she seemingly forgives Charlie and grows closer after he provides an alibi for her when Sheriff Howard (Ralph Brown) questions her about Whip's disappearance. They grow close to intimate before Evelyn witnesses them. Later that evening, Evelyn coldly expresses her desire to watch India suffer before confronting Charlie, implying that she knows the truth about Richard's death. Charlie seduces Evelyn and then attempts to strangle her before India appears and fatally shoots Charlie with a rifle. She then buries Charlie's body in the backyard and proceeds to leave for New York in his car.
She is shortly pulled over for speeding by Sheriff Howard, who then asks her why she's in a hurry. India replies that she wanted to catch his attention, then plunges a pair of pruning shears into his neck. India pursues the wounded sheriff into a field to dispatch him with her rifle.

Tags: dark, mystery, psychological, murder, horror, flashback

Review:
As a fan of Chan-Wook Park's Korean films, particular his gross twist on a vampire story in 2009's Thirst, I was incredibly excited to see his first English language offering.
So despite not quite sticking the landing, Stoker is effectively creepy, well acted, and an enjoyable beginning to what I hope will be a long English language career for Chan-wook Park..
Furthermore, there's a wonderful Hitchcock feel to it and clearly pays homage to 'Shadow Of A doubt' with a character called Uncle Charlie.The writer is Wentworth Miller, an actor, and this being his first screenplay makes it all the more impressive.
Based on the quality of this movie, Wentworth Miller needs to get writing some more screenplays.I also felt the subject matter was a perfect match for Director Chan-wook Park, who's no stranger to controversial themes.
These themes are essentially what the movie is about.Nicole Kidman plays mother 'Evelyn Stoker', and Matthew Goode plays charismatic, creepy Uncle 'Charles Stoker', but there's simply no argument as to who steals the limelight and it's Mia Wasikowska (Alice In Wonderland, Jane Eyre), as 18 year old 'India Stoker'.
It may only be the beginning of March, and there's been a lot of great movies so far in 2013, but I think 'Stoker' is the best film of the year at this point.
Without the appropriate cinematic skills, this film could have sunk completely, but thanks to Chan-wook Park being a master of psychological thriller, it came to be a nice work of art.
Deliberate loose ends and cut scenes, designed to confuse the viewer and cause uncertainty.Much like with his all-time classic, puzzling masterpiece "Oldboy", Park wants to disturb you.
I liked the script by Wentworth Miller (although I don't think the script gets full credit for the suspense created here), and I found Mia Wasikowska's performance superb.This film is dark and might make you feel disgusted or uncomfortable.
I began to wonder if there would be some grand twist in the end, and was waiting for it through one pointless scene after the other, just to realize the ending could be seen a mile away and all that confusing storytelling really amounts to absolutely nothing.I would recommend this movie only to people who can sit through two hours of something they are not exactly sure whether it is what you are watching.
Stoker, celebrated Korean director Chan-wook Park's English-language debut, is a dark, disturbing and diabolical film about an introspective young girl named India who witnesses the loss of innocence following the sudden and untimely death of her beloved father.
The main character is an 18 year old girl called India Stoker played by Mia Wasikowska who was recently in the not very good but very popular Alice in Wonderland.
The script itself could be rewritten with more depth and attention to the emotional wealth and strange sway of the characters, for all of them are skilled enough to operate powerfully under the shroud of mystery director Park Chan-Wook erects so flawlessly, yet the film could be much improved in tragic and horrifying value through a more tailored script.
The almost completely obvious plot resolves in a tedious, completely unbelievable way, but that doesn't even matter because the director has given the humble viewer absolutely no reason to care about any of the characters.It's properly amazing someone has been able to do so little with so much talent - Mia, Nicole and Jackie are all absolutely top notch, and Mathew Goode was excellent in the most recent Brideshead Revisited adaption.
The mother was quite frankly annoying to watch for any more than 10 seconds and Uncle Charlie just seemed to float around, occasionally uttering blindly obvious or stupidly confusing anecdotes, depending on the scene.Whilst a small number of scenes actually brought some tension to the story through the use of clever parallel editing, the remainder was unfortunately spoiled by the DP's obsession with shots that craned and tracked and racked focus at every possible opportunity - they say good cinematography should blend seamlessly with the story.
Plot looks okay, excellent choice of cast.The moment the movie starts, you instantly notice the mysterious atmosphere the director tries to pass on to the viewers.
But she also has a crush on Charlie."Stoker" is a boring and pretentious thriller by the cult South Korean director Chan-wook Park.
It's the most complete artistic work by Chan-wook Park in his career so far, an ingenious masterpiece, with the only minor complaint being the lack of the explicit violence he depicts in his Korean movies; this is not his fault though, but the request of the American companies involved, and still he manages to make us shiver with the cruelty of the violent scenes depicted and insinuated.To fully appreciate this movie, you must have watched Old Boy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, and in general to be a fan of Korean and Japanese cinema.
I love the directorial style that Chan-wook Park brings to all his movies, they are visual masterpieces to watch.
I also want to point out that Stoker has this amazing feel to it, much like a Hitchcock film, where the scenes are eerie and long.
With its evocative title and quirky Gothic horror tone, the first English-language film from Korean Park Chan-wook reads like an obvious companion piece to the director's 2009 vampire parable Thirst.The only monsters here, however, are unmistakably and unambiguously human.
Not only has she lost her dearest pop but her best friend, the one person who truly understood her.India's grief-stricken mother Evie (Nicole Kidman) clearly isn't cut out for single-parenthood – her maternal inadequacy summed up in the line, "Personally speaking, I can't wait to watch life tear you apart." So it's to both women's relief when long-lost Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) shows up out of the blue offering solace.So far so Shadow Of A Doubt.
The whole thing plays out like a Stephenie Meyer penned episode of Midsomer Murders in which each character's dramatic arc is offset by irrational actions and illogical judgements.The film's parting sin: a long reveal-all flashback that dampens any lingering glimmer of intrigue and leaves very little to savour on repeat viewings.Littlewhitelies..
Being a die-hard fan of Chan-wook Park's movies also had me excited to see his first English language effort that as I sat in that theater from the very first moment I watched this film without favoritism or preconceptions.
By the end, this movie still reached my expectations but I left the theater replaying how it unfolded over and over in my head for the rest of the day.At the funeral of her father's death, India (played by Mia Wasikowska) for the first time meets and learns of the existence of her uncle Charlie.
Like with John Woo, Hideo Nakata and Wong Kar-Wei something went lost with this Hollywood debut by Chan-wook Park.At least Stoker has reminded me to watch Shadow of a Doubt again and that is the only good thing I can say about it..
The three principle actors are superb but Mia Wasikowska really gives the film a beating heart, as her character, India Stoker, emerges from her innocence into her latent self, her true nature.
STOKER is a strange little film that unfurls its blossom of a story in manner that draws the viewer into the hauntingly bizarre family with fine writing (actor Wentworth Miller with Erin Cressida Wilson), fine directing (Chan-wook Park), fine art direction (Wing Lee) fine casting and some of the most beautiful cinematography of the year (Chung-hoon Chung).
Only once you realize this do you become free, and to become adult is to become free.'The plot can be summarized as follows without providing information that would destroy the suspenseful movement of this strange story: India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) was not prepared to lose her father and best friend Richard (Dermot Mulroney) in a tragic auto accident.
Well, I guess you are thinking: looks like a nice thriller to spend my afternoon, Nikol Kidman is playing, nice IMDb rating, it should be fine..NOOOOTTTTGood things: the cast is nice plays nice, the photo is great BUTTerrible things: it manages to be the most boring thriller ever, OK OK sorry, its not even a thriller, its a meaningless movie that everybody's behaviour just does not make sense, every character is ridiculous and unreasonable...
As a fan of Chan-wook Park's masterpieces I was highly anticipating for his first English speaking movie Stoker.
after minuets of watching i found myself glued to the movie and drawn into the mystery.Stoker is a well developed intellectual physiological thriller, by far the best i have seen not only is the cinematography outstanding the story line and character development is mastered excellently down to the fine details.
This film is a rare find and is truly beautiful and hypnotic because it dives deep into the characters minds and shows exactly how they are thinking but yet still keeps hidden the darkest secrets and adds a dream like feel to this strange reality which yet feels so real yet so far from normality.
The plot is essentially Hitchcock's Shadow Of A Doubt (1943), but this is a good one, full of potential for delightful and interesting variations, such as the wickedly disturbing 1966 Let's Kill Uncle with Mary Badham of To Kill A Mockingbird fame.In Stoker, troubled India (Mia Wasikowska) reminds us of Wednesday from The Addam's Family.
It's a satisfying change of pace from the patronizingly conventional and downright silly horror releases lately issuing from Tinseltown like effluent from a landfill, and most Gothic thriller fans will want to see it.South Korean director Chan-wook Park is best known to fans of the weird for his bizarre, gory cult movies such as Oldboy from The Vengeance Trilogy.
It's not until her Uncle turns up, to throw the family into a subtle disarray, that we start to see their family life unfolding.Charles Stoker is besotted with India, taking a very keen interest in her in a way which constantly feels awkward and a little bit wrong, whilst forging a friendship with his Brother's widow.But it's India's character arc which is the main focus, and what a journey she goes on.
I cannot say too much about her character without giving too much away about where the film goes, you'll just have to watch it for yourself.Director Chan-wook Park delivers a visual spectacle, with long sweeping camera shots, swift angle changes and a very typically clear colour palate to bring everything together.
India is surrounded by blacks & whites and greys whilst her Mother is very much enveloped in a mustard and light orange glow, which fits in well with Nicole Kidman's hair colour.The script is also well written, and Prison Break's Wentworth Miller clearly knows his craft well, bringing a very slick text to these characters.Stoker is not a drift-in, drift-out movie, it's a "watch and see what happens" type, driven by great cinematography and dialogue.
Matthew Goode's Charlie is sinister even when he's being nice, and Mia Wasikowska's downplayed part comes across well.Chan-wook Park brought us one of the greatest Korean films ever in "Oldboy" and he definitely delivers in this, his first ever English Spoken film.Enjoy!.
First off all the actors cast here .Great talents i especially like the uncle and the little girl.They overshadowed nicole kidmans big time ,they were all good .They just seemed so out of place in this particular movie none of them belonged here.None of them seemed to have a solid purpose beyond their characters relation to each other.Everything just seemed to be very one dimensional .Like not well planned or thought out ,i felt like i was watching a school play.
Oldboy director Park Chan-Wook has come stateside to make his first American feature, and Stoker is a visually stunning, eerie movie.India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) is an unusual teenager.
Stoker is also a movie with substance, playing like a dark coming of age tale as India changes to be a more open and sexual person but also releases her inner demons.
Because on one hand, this is a beautifully filmed, edited, scored, acted(such subtlety) movie, creepy, full of suspense and tension leading to brutal violence, with a mystery that is gripping until the flat, climax-less ending that takes a lot away as we learn the truth and the symbolism, great, though there's also a bit too much of it.
As the movie begins to unfold we discover some hidden secrets from the family's past.I've mentioned how much I liked Park's direction and Miller's script, but I also have to give credit to Wasikowska's performance.
Mother-to-daughter relations and the mix of grief and coming to age have seldom looked so frightening.Acting plays a central role in the way Park builds his story, characters, and the relations between them.
The film takes on a pretty even pace; it's never too fast or too slow, and it takes its time to let the atmosphere sink in.The story, however, doesn't feel like it goes anywhere.
India is suspicious of her Uncle Charlie and as she begins to discover he may be dangerous, her suspicion turns to infatuation.STOKER begins playing out like an update of Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 film Shadow Of A Doubt.
Excellent cinematography and editing with great performances by the entire cast as well Let's face it, this movie is a sick, twisted, disturbed, psycho thriller perfectly raveled in a strong, thick fog of mystery that not only goes farther than Hitchcock ever could, it enhances the dreadful suspense with unparalleled style and direction..
Again, what Park was going for might work in a South Korean film, but like Nicole Kidman's character it feels out of place here.
The director and cinematographer are Korean, the composer, screenwriter and lead actor are from the UK and the two main actresses are Australian.Being that this is my first Chan-wook Park's film I saw, I'd say I'm quite impressed with his direction and style.
There is something creepy about him, and she soon finds out that he's more than just creepy.Director Chan-wook Park brings an interesting moody vibe but the low energy acting and the slow moving story drains the tension right out of the movie.
It is quite a mysterious film were you know that something isn't right throughout the movie, but by the time that it all comes together, I just lost all interest.
It is the writer behind this story Wentworth Miller I am talking about, and he did a really nice job in writing a strange, dark, twisted and mysterious piece.The strangeness of this films slowly reveals itself, it is slow paced, but that just makes it more strange, you keep thinking I have to watch carefully to know what is going on and what is happening, that must be why it is moving in this pace, but it is mostly to have the viewer see all the small details, the twist and turns, the imagery and the small sounds that all plays wonderfully well together.Early on you are told that she can hear small sounds, things that are far away and notice stuff that cripple and crawl.
Have in mind though that the violence, disturbness etc, is Nothing compared to some of his earlier works.The script, written by Wentworth Miller (Prison Brake) is not flawless, but really really good.At the moment I am breath taken by the acting of the whole ensemble.Kidman delivers as always, Mia Wasikowska is as good if not better, I did not realize that I had already seen like five of her films until I checked her out on IMDb, hats off for this young lady, I am totally starstruck/in love/blown away, what a fantastic actress!
And last but Definitely not least Matthew Goode, I didn't think he could deliver what he does in this type of film, I was wrong, I have always considered him a good actor but had only seen him in geek-like roles.If you the viewer are sensitive; this almost masterpiece might be disturbing for you to watch, I'm not gonna spoil why...But for all you mystery/thriller lovers out there it's a must see.The Only reason I did not give this film a ten star rating was because in my mind it was to short, I would have liked to see more/deeper character development, most of all between the cast as a whole.
If you have never seen a Chan-wook Park film go watch Oldboy right now, if you are a fan of his work Stoker will not disappoint.
I will start out by saying that the way that "Stoker" is shot and filmed is actually enough to make the movie worth watching.
Although Nicole Kidman, playing Evelyn, didn't have a role all that great, then she did bring her usual good performance and presence to the movie.If you enjoy a mystery thriller that is something out of the ordinary, then "Stoker" is well worth a watch.
However, just bring an open mind, because "Stoker" does tend to think out of the sandbox most of the time in terms as mystery thriller goes.I am giving the movie 5 out of 10 stars, based on the camera-work and the acting, which was ultimate dragged down by a story that tried too much and didn't fully manage to bring together all that it put out there..
Matthew Goode has a boatload of talent and he uses it well in this film.Overall, Stoker is a dark, twisting, mind-bending thriller that tells its story with the use of rich imagery and breathtaking cinematography.
Park appears to be more interested in the look of the mystery than getting into the actual character impetus behind that mystery.STOKER is an enjoyable film to watch.
It soon seems that Charlie's presence constitutes more than simply a mourning brother.Stoker is directed by Chan-wook Park (Old Boy) and is his first English language film.
"Stoker" is famed South Korean director Chan-wook Park's first English language film.
India is able to escape her family, but deep down she is what she is.Director Park crafts a beautiful looking film from top to bottom.