A Cure for Wellness

This film feels like a Black Mirror episode - but one that treads water for almost two and a half hours without ever reaching its main idea. 250% longer, but only a fraction of the satisfaction.

I really wanted to immerse myself in its atmosphere and ideas, the idea of a David Lynch/Cronenberg style Shining/Shutter Island film seems great. But the film really tests your patience. The main character is icy and unlikable, the other characters are similarly distant. Stuff happens, a lot of stuff, some of it great looking, but with nothing to tie it together or the any character depth to engage with, it ends up feeling like you're being taken through a film students visual exhibition that doesn't end soon enough.

It really doesn't live up to the amazing film that the trailer suggests, a pattern that seems to be more and more common with films these days. Similar to Passengers, I wonder if moments were shot just to make the trailer more powerful in selling the film.

Gore Verbinski has created a visually splendid thriller/horror film, which creates a wonderfully foreboding atmosphere. However, what could have been a great film is marred by a convoluted screenplay that falls to pieces in its final act, and is riddled with plot holes. I waited patiently for all the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place (and with the running time approaching 2 and a half hours, it's quite a wait), yet ultimately I was left somewhat confused and underwhelmed by how it all played out.

I still recommend it for the wonderful cinematography and chilling atmosphere. But with some liberal editing and a tighter screenplay we could have had a real classic on our hands. Shame.

...with elements of mystery and Gothic horror, from Fox and co-writer and director Gore Verbinski. Dane DeHaan stars as a cutthroat financial agent in a big Wall Street firm who is tasked with traveling to Switzerland to find the firm's CEO who has checked into an exclusive health resort. Upon arrival, it doesn't take long for DeHaan to realize something is not quite right at the seemingly idyllic sanitarium, which is on the grounds of an old castle in the Swiss Alps. But try as he might, DeHaan doesn't seem able to leave the place, and the hospital's chief doctor (Jason Isaacs) doesn't seem in a rush to allow that, either.

This movie looks amazing, with evocative cinematography and terrific locations and sets. The acting is also good, and the cast of mainly lesser-knowns helps the characters to stand out. With a story like this, you know the outcome will be one of two things: either the protagonist is hallucinating/dreaming many of the events, or the events that he's experiencing are real and the story moves into Weirdsville. I won't spoil which it is here, but I will say it kept me guessing up to the end, and perhaps beyond. A warning: there is quite a bit of disturbing imagery, and you'll see a whole lot of people naked that you would rather not have seen.

"A Cure for Wellness" follows an ambitious, young New York financial executive who is sent to Switzerland to retrieve a colleague who has indefinitely extended his stay at a mountaintop sanitorium known for its therapeutic mineral waters. Hiding behind the veneer of medicine, however, is something far darker.

Though it's taken a critical beating, "A Cure for Wellness" is a bit of an underdog in my book. It's a big-budget picture backed by a major studio that is a financially dangerous mix of genres, references, and ideas. It's, in a word, ambitious—and a gamble on just about all fronts. The result is phenomenal in many regards, less so in others, but given the current climate of the horror film, this movie offers a lot of things that you simply do not see much of in genre films (or just films in general, for that matter) anymore.

One could list the aesthetic references for days, though director Gore Verbinski seems to be heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock in compositions, David Cronenberg in theme, and Mario Bava in both—and that's probably just the tip of the iceberg. In any case, the film is visually sumptuous, and honestly one of the best-photographed films I've seen in perhaps years. Stunning compositions of the castle yard and the surrounding Swiss Alps need to be seen to be believed, while the vintage hospital interiors are equally stunning and atmospheric for different (and more sinister) reasons. While the first twenty minutes of the film are wildly contemporary, everything that follows seems to be framed within a pre-World War II vacuum.

Needless to say, the film is visually incredible and saturated in a Euro-Gothic atmosphere that to me seemed quite reminiscent of Bava (think "Kill, Baby... Kill!" stretched to big-budget parameters). In terms of narrative, the film is borderline mythical, weaving an entire history of the sanitorium that, though contrived, is enough to pique the interest of any self-respecting genre fan. The main problem here is that the unfurling of that history and its relationship to what is happening at the sanitorium is not only semi-predictable, but it begins to drag its feet a bit in the last act of the film, coming to a conclusion that, though appropriate, feels slightly pedestrian. I don't want to say the film devolves, but it certainly does cross the threshold from "genuinely unique amalgam" to "semi-predictable psychological thriller" somewhere in the third act.

In spite of this, however, the film is undeniably fun, and remains engrossing from start to finish; though the two and a half-hour run time could have been trimmed a bit, the film never felt tedious to me, probably because of how skillfully it was able to invent and then wallow in its own world. Solid performances also help; Dane DeHaan convincingly plays the young and assertive financier, while Mia Goth is an ethereal and guileless patient whom he befriends (and who plays a key part in what is to come). Jason Isaacs is also sinister as the cool, self-possessed leader of the hospital.

While "A Cure for Wellness" certainly deserves some hits for taking a few predictable narrative routes, I am still somewhat surprised that it's gotten the negative feedback it has from critics. I think genre fans will genuinely appreciate it—ranging from sci-fi fans to through-and-through horror cinephiles like myself—because it uses its references smartly and evokes an atmosphere that is truly overpowering. There is enough heady Gothic atmosphere, body horror, and psychological paranoia to keep everybody engaged. Even when it's predictable and even when its own mythos registers too absurd, I can't bring myself to knock it because there is so much it gets right—but I suppose my greater point is that, even when it doesn't get it right, you never feel compelled to look away. 8/10.

Gore Verbinski, the man who gave us the first "Ring" movie, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, "Rango," and "The Lone Ranger" is now back with this Hitchcockian Gothic psychological thriller designed to keep you guessing till the very end. Even though its final 20 minutes somewhat go off the rails a bit, overall A CURE FOR WELLNESS is stunning, bold and hypnotic.

Dane DeHaan plays an ambitious young executive, Lockhart, sent to retrieve his company's missing CEO who's decided to stay at a remote wellness center in the Swiss Alps. What is supposed to be an easy assignment turns into a journey of slowly but surely uncovering the center's dark past, uncovering the real reasons as to why the guests keep staying there, longing for the cure, as Lockhart himself starts to question his own sanity.

You will fall in love with the cinematography by DP Bojan Bazelli. Even if you're not a fan of mystery or suspense, Bazelli's cinematography for "A Cure For Wellness' will leave you floored, the word breathtaking doesn't even begin to fairly describe it. There are shots through the tunnel, around the castle, and even during some of the film's most disturbing moments, they draw you in, gorgeous in every possible way. And the fact that they actually filmed a big chunk on location at Castle Hohenzollern in Germany does help because the place becomes a supporting role.

Ever since "Chronicle," Dane DeHaan has been an actor that's caught my attention because I do believe that this rising star has what it takes to be great, A CURE FOR WELLNESS allows him to showcase a tease of that potential. His performance reminds me of Leo DiCaprio's in "Shutter Island" and Jack Nicholson's in "The Shining" where to a certain extent, you're not certain if they'd eventually cross that line or remain on this side of the fence. A CURE FOR WELLNESS is trippy, it's intriguing, it's filled with all kinds of odd imagery, it's definitely not for the faint of heart. It's a sensory experience type of a film, the kind that also evokes all sorts of questions about society and what it means to live well and the ambition for purity. But again, as I said earlier, the final 20 minutes do go off the rails a bit, by that time the film feels like it runs longer than it should and furthermore it gets ruined by its desire to leave us on a happy note. A CURE FOR WELLNESS will find its audience, but it's an acquired taste.