Rating of
3/4
Stoker review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 06/15/13
"What a tragic waste of life." From the director of the Vengeance trilogy. Compared to his trio of a masterpiece which this critic admired, the violence here is tamed and toned down. The father of India Stoker's (Mia Wasikowska) passes away on her birthday so Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) takes care of her. India is introduced to Richard's brother Charlie (Matthew Goode), who she never met before. Charlie tries to connect with India, but she resists. Aunt Gwendolyn (Jacki Weaver) visits the Stoker's.
UNfortunately Mulroney's role is limited and not much has been divulged with regard to Charlie's condition for his shocking actions. Nevertheless, the performances were believable, Camera direction was spectacular as always coming from the director and the soundtrack adds to the tension/beauty of certain scenes. Screenplay was effective with lines from: India - "Just as a flower does not choose its color, we are not responsible for what we have come to be. Only once you realize this do you become free." "Sometimes you need to do something bad to keep you from doing something worse." Sheriff - "Strange how people just keep disappearing." and the best line coming from Evelyn - "You know I've often wondered why it is we have children in the first place and the conclusion I've come to is at some point in our lives we realize things are, they're messed up beyond repair. So we decide to start again, wipe the slate clean, start fresh and we have children, little carbon copies we can turn to and say, you will do things I cannot. You will succeed where I have failed because we want someone to get it right this time."
This shows so much potential for the director in handling a different cast and different premise. The themes of being deranged, forgiveness, parenting, infatuation with violence, presence of death, making an impact and transformation for the worse. It may lack a certain depth and some scenes may move too slow to emphasize a shot, still this was a well crafted picture which shows how a shy girl can change and have a mean streak taught by her father. Stoker can be reviewed to pick-up on certain messages, overall the director is just beginning to introduce himself outside of Korea.
