STOKER
BY CHRISTOPHER HASKELL
MARCH 2, 2013
“Stoker” is the perfect English debut from director Chan-wook Park. In this eerie thriller, Mia Wasikowska boldly plays a young woman named India, who deals not only with the loss of her father, but her insatiable mother, played by Nicole Kidman, and the emergence of a distant uncle, Charlie, played brilliantly by Matthew Goode. Park displays his prowess with solid attention to detail, providing one of the most intense and creative sound designs I’ve ever experienced, along with a keen eye for impeccable imagery. There is a strong sense of rhythm and punctuation in the film’s editing, with impressive transitions coinciding with the film’s central solid cinematography.
“Stoker” is poetic. Like the piano parts played throughout, the film has highs and lows, crescendos and decrescendos. It is ultimately a study of perspective with which one little change can make the same series of events mean something completely different, which we constantly revisit throughout the film. The performances are tight-knit, the film’s production is masterful, and Park now has the impossible task of topping his latest film.
RELEASE DATE
March 1, 2013
DIRECTOR
Chan-Wook Park
WRITTEN BY
Wentworth Miller
STUDIO
Fox Searchlight Pictures
R
(for disturbing violent and sexual content)
DRAMA
THRILLER
98 minutes
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Chung-hoon Chung
COMPOSER
Clint Mansell
EDITOR
Nicolas De Toth
CAST
Mia Wasikowska
Matthew Goode
Nicole Kidman
Dermot Mulroney
Jacki Weaver
Lucas Til
Alden Ehrenreich
Harmony Korine
PRODUCED BY
Ridley Scott
Tony Scott
Michael Costigan
BUDGET
$12 million
