Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Psychiatrist Sam Foster has a new patient, Henry Letham, who claims to be suicidal. In trying to diagnose him, Sam visits Henry's prior therapist and also finds Henry's mother -- even though Henry has said that he murdered both of his parents. As reality starts to contradict fact, Sam spirals into an unstable mental state. Then he finds a clue as to how and when Henry may try to kill himself, and races to try to stop him.
Stay is a visually audacious psychological thriller that uses its fractured, dreamlike cinematography and editing to mirror its protagonist's destabilizing grip on reality. The film's visual language — seamless transitions, doubled frames, repeating motifs — is genuinely exceptional and marks it as a rare formal experiment in mainstream cinema. The plot is ambitious and conceptually rich, threading together themes of guilt, dying consciousness, and blurred perception in a way that earns its 4 even if the narrative demands patience. Novelty is high: the film has a singular, unmistakable voice that few films share. The ending, while emotionally resonant and thematically coherent, has divided audiences as either revelatory or deflating, landing it in a more middling position. Acting is solid but not transformative — McGregor, Naomi Watts, and Ryan Gosling acquit themselves well without doing career-defining work.