Stay (2005)
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A psychiatrist's attempt to save a paranoid patient spirals into a reality-bending journey of guilt and dreams.
The story
Psychiatrist Sam Foster meets with a new patient, Henry Letham, a depressed and paranoid college student who claims to hear voices and predict future events. Henry expresses deep feelings of guilt and remorse, and his behavior becomes increasingly erratic. When Henry hints at plans to commit suicide, Sam's fiancée Lila, who survived a past suicide attempt, offers to help dissuade him. However, Henry suddenly disappears, prompting Sam to begin a desperate investigation into the young man's circumstances and his mysterious history.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After Henry disappears, Sam investigates his life, finding his mother in a state of confusion and discovering that Henry's claims about his parents' deaths are contradicted. Sam experiences a fugue state where scenes repeat, and he eventually tracks down a waitress named Athena, whom Henry claimed to love. He discovers a painting by Tristan Reveur, an artist who committed suicide on the Brooklyn Bridge, and realizes Henry intends to imitate the act on his 21st birthday. On the bridge, the atmosphere unravels as Henry reveals he believes the world is a dream and shoots himself. The film reveals that the entire narrative was a dream experienced by Henry in his final moments following a car crash on the Brooklyn Bridge. Each character was actually a spectator at the crash site, and Sam and Lila were medical personnel attempting to save him. Henry dies, but not before seeing Lila as Athena and proposing to her.
- First release year
- 2005
- Runtime (minutes)
- 99
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Marc Forster
- Writers
- David Benioff · writer
- Cast and characters
- Ewan McGregor · Dr. Sam Foster; Naomi Watts · Lila Culpepper; Ryan Gosling · Henry Letham; Bob Hoskins · Dr. Leon Patterson; Janeane Garofalo · Dr. Beth Levy; Elizabeth Reaser · Athena; B.D. Wong · Dr. Bradley Ren; Kate Burton · Maureen Letham
- Genres
- psychological thriller
- Themes
- reality vs. dreams; guilt; suicide; death; afterlife
- Tone and mood
- artistic; provocative; twisty
- Premise and plot tags
- psychological thriller; supernatural; dream sequence; medical drama
- Content notes
- suicide
- Reception
- The film was a massive box office failure and received mixed to negative critical reviews, described as a muddled brain-teaser with innovative visuals but little substance.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 26% · review count: 121
- Production trivia
- The film's continuity mistakes are intentional and tied into the plot.; Marc Forster's style references films like Vertigo.; The film was finished in January 2005.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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