A Cure For Wellness

A Cure for Wellness is a very fine film with some unsettling visuals and splendid photography with a weak payoff, but a payoff that is more than compensated for by what preceded it.It could be said of some films that the setting is a character all its own, here, the exterior architecture of the institute is much too pleasant looking to be foreboding. But there are few movies I can think of however, where the color and lighting scheme serve their purpose well enough to feel like characters.The lack of the kind of creepiness factor that in some movies comes as the result of a spooky building like a haunted house, is more than compensated for by the lighting of the interior of the institute and a color scheme with bleak white interiors punctuated with sickly yellow rooms, in shades that run the gamut of jaundiced skin and old dried bones. In some places, the pale color scheme is broken up by muted darker colors of the kind that one finds in civil service buildings in rooms and hallways usually hidden from public view. The kind of colors applied in a way that makes employees feel trapped in their careers.The color scheme sells the idea of sterile cleanliness while that very same cleanliness winds up feeling oppressive due to the early 1900s style furnishings and staff uniforms. While the bowels of the institute are cave-like and as in many horror films, are a metaphorical stand in for the depths of hell, at this point the familiarity of such settings in films strips them of any sense of foreboding and as such, it is far less unsettling than the rest of the institution.All of the acting is muted, but I hasten to add that this does not mean that the acting is wooden, far from it. The impression I got was that of the patients either trapped by their fates, numb with a sense of content complacency or possessed of a cult-like contentment. In public view, the staff seems to have settled into a practiced, but conscientious routine, with occasional lapses of crude behavior such as masturbation and assaulting a helpless patient. With the staff, there is enough there to convey that these are flawed beings not as self-controlled as the administrators, but without the overkill some filmmakers find necessary to exhibit in a tepid attempt to gin up any sense of ominousness.Gore Verbinski tosses in a local town reliant on the institute economically, but for one incident involving a violent young man, he stops short of turning the town into a horror film cliché where the locals are sinister. Though there is some sense of that, the overall impression is that the town residents are all too aware that the vitality of the town such as it is, is due to the success of the institute.I don’t know that I’d call A Cure for Wellness a horror film. In fact, A Cure for Wellness makes a compelling case for creating a different classification for films that are creepy and unsettling and yet fall short of full blown horror.The film’s climax is the weakest point of A Cure for Wellness for two reasons. The first reason is the final conflict that while short, as these scenes go, still feels deliberately drawn out. The second, is the reliance on the kind of music that typifies conflict in these types of film, a bit too dramatic. This stands in contrast to the relative quiet music from the rest of the film as well as the music from an interspersed ballroom dance where the patients are clad in white ritual robes. Personally, I think the conflict scene music would have been better served by silence, thus allowing the licking flames, the rippling of water and the breaking of glass supply the soundtrack for a more visceral experience.Another alternative would have been to use the ballroom music throughout so as to disjointedly contrast the differing moods of the two scenes. This would help to convey the cluelessness of the dancers (all patients) which mirrors their reason for going to the institute and their actual experiences there. Or he could have used the kind of subdued music punctuating the rest of the film, or something discordant and disorienting.All an all however, A Cure for Wellness is a very excellent film if you give yourself permission to just enjoy the journey.I rented this film digitally and am seriously thinking of purchasing it as I suspect it’s one of those films that one appreciates more with each viewing..

Pretty good movie. Didn't know what to expect and gotta say enjoyed it quite a bit.

Not gruesome but gross. It's an entertaining mystery that leaves you scratching your head!

MY CALL: Incredibly strange yet surprisingly rather coherent given its moral-testing lunacy and wispily mixed themes, this visually stunning and sanity-challenging film is worth the time of any adventurous film-goer with a strong stomach and a penchant for the unusual.Director Gore Verbinksi (The Ring, The Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3) brings his facility for scale and cinematography to this GORGEOUS film that injects a horrific story into The Road to Wellville (1994) interspersed with Shutter Island (2010).From its very offset we are awash with very different tones and themes. We meet a slick, ambitious young Wall Street executive who is charged by the robotically cold corporate board to venture to a sanitarium in the Swiss Alps to return the company’s perhaps insane CEO. Not 15 minutes into the film and we have corporate scandals and hints that a Frankensteinian dichotomy exists between the “villagers” and the hilltop castle-like wellness facility in a region of the world remote from modern comforts—as if spinning an admixture of present day with Mary Shelley’s historic period.Our young exec Lockhart (Dane Dehaan; Chronicle, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) discovers a Utopian treatment center with sunny Tai Chi and badminton on the lawn enjoyed by smiling patients in immaculate white robes and none with a negative word to say. So idealistic is it, that the patients seem to participate equally with the staff in hiding something as Lockhart learns more of the historic hydrotherapy facility’s dark past.As Lockhart, Dane Dehaan is as sinister as he is charming, but more tightly wound; an excellent counterpart to Jason Isaac’s Dr. Volmer (The OA, Event Horizon) very similar performance as the charismatic facility director Dr. Volmer, who is of ever more calm disposition. As Lockhart loses control, Volmer is always there to grasp more. Not unlike Shutter Island (2010), Lockhart’s investigation soon finds himself a patient of the facility, with numerous delusions of his present echoing the haunting pains of his past.Things get pretty weird and we end up somewhere I absolutely didn’t expect through the use of elderly full frontal nudity, complicated historical clues revolving around incest and deformed babies, a very strange masturbation scene, reality-questioning hypotheses (or hallucinations) of parasitosis and their VERY invasive means of application, rumors of science-based longevity, an unusual application of electric eels in an off-putting coming-of-age scene, and an extremely uncomfortable father-daughter moment that will likely offend many viewers. Yes, this film includes numerous perverse themes. But, no, I don’t find it exploitative. Given the cavalier inclusion of the aforementioned components, the film was approached rather tactfully. Although it is more than a bit jarring when an actress (regardless of her adulthood in reality) playing an early teenage girl (Mia Goth; Nymphomaniac Vol. II, the 2018 remake of 1977’s Suspiria) is the subject of nudity and sexual assault. So… yeah… ummm… don’t watch this with your mother or your kids.Despite being incredibly eerie and on (frequent) occasion uncomfortable, this is truly an outstanding film.

It's a good thriller movie.

Está muy bien diseñado, muy buena escala. Y las minifiguras Uff

Ottimo prodotto

When I bought this movie from Amazon I did not have much expectations from it. But as the title shot came onto screen with the haunting musical score it grabbed me and held my interest until the climax. A true sci fi kind of horror tale that is mesmerizing. beautifully acted, shot with imagination with primary location being one of the most scenic castles of Germany. Fans of Lovecraft can love this film. Thanks to director Gore Verbinski who directed this movie. Though it has some logic lapses still It is the best movie I bought from Amazon so far.By Sankha Bhattacharya

When the CEO of a company in trouble goes to a remote wellness centre and doesn't return, a young executive is sent to retrieve him. But after he arrives and spends some time it becomes clear much more going on there than is initially obvious.Beautifully filmed, skilfully acted and with a healthy $40 million budget to spend, the filmmakers created a visual feast but with a rather unsatisfying story. There isn't really very much going on that you can't guess from early on, and it takes so long to tell the story, which feels rather bloated and probably could have been improved with a good 30 minutes removed. And in the last half an hour the story and the behaviour of most of the characters becomes more and more insane, ending up all in a bit of a mess. However, having said all that the film is entertaining enough if you can forgive its shortcomings as the locations, sets, costumes and props are fabulous to look at.The Blu-ray presentation does not disappoint with exceptionally detailed video and some interesting colour choices - outdoors shots are generally bright and highly colour saturated while some of the scenes shot in the underground parts of the facility have blue/grey tinges helping to convey the coldness and sinister aspects of the centre. The audio is delivered via a dts-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack which is impressive with excellent clarity and great use of the surround channels.The film will be lauded by many but had far too many shortcomings for me. 3.5 stars.