Stay – Review

Opening on a tire explosion and a car spinning into a fiery wreck, Stay is a mysterious and eerie story. Surviving the ordeal and sitting on the highway in front of the wreckage is Henry Letham (Gosling). He looks unhurt, and slowly gets up and walks away down the street.

Psychiatrist Sam Foster (McGregor) wakes, sleeping through his alarm clock due to a whining baby impacting his sleep. He bikes to work and meets girlfriend Lila Culpepper (Watts), before heading to his office and meeting his new client, Henry Letham. Henry’s regular doctor is not feeling well and is out for a few weeks, so Sam is stepping in.

Henry feels uncomfortable with his new doctor, wondering if his old one was afraid and he is being passed off. Henry gives cryptic information, saying he woke up and his car was on fire, unsure of how the accident happened. As the doctor works with Henry to dive into the mystery of his past and trauma, Sam himself finds his world strangely breaking down around him.

As the mysterious events pile up, Sam struggles to find the truth, and help his troubled patient, Henry. Stay remains a bendy mind-warp, exploring human traits through various characters and strange happenings.

Critics never liked this movie at all, mostly calling it derivative of other features and/or unbaked. Honestly, its vibe always worked for me personally. No, it’s not the best thing I have ever seen, but the cast is superb, the direction more than competent and the script solid enough. Yes, there is another movie to easily compare it to for story similarities, but that one is also pretty solid to me, so I accept Stay as a similar piece of art.

Take the trip if you are looking for something abstract and dreamlike.