“To be completely honest, what drew me most to Stoker was the name. The Dracula connection was not lost on me. Even though I knew it wasn’t gonna be about our favorite supernatural count (or the man who wrote him), it’s a name that evokes a certain tone and emotion. You expect macabre, morbid, gothic, and dark. That’s exactly what we got.
Once it was on my radar, I’d found out that the screenplay was written by Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller. Being curious as to what a favorite pretty face could put together I was really paying attention to the details of the script. I think the boy did pretty well for his first outing.
The film took a while to get started. Things were slow, and “”artsy””. Some of it I really liked. Some of it came off as a little too weird for me. But instead of the problem I see with lots of movies where I’m into it and get bored, this had the reverse issue. It didn’t really grab me right away, but by the time it did, I was hooked. The main reason for that shift is that the film starts off seeming to be about one thing. Mopey teen girl (who reminded me a lot of myself back in the day) ‘s father dies. She doesn’t get along well with her mom. A mysterious uncle appears. He gets along rather well with mom. That much, eh. Especially in a post-Paperboy world, I’m not exactly excited about seeing Nicole Kidman as that type of seductress. But then the story goes somewhere COMPLETELY different. Completely more to my interests. Completely captivating my attention.
Truly loved Matthew Goode and his Norman Bates-esque vibe, an unsettling and suspicious charm. The least known (for me) of the leads, but easily my favorite. I’m still torn on Mia Washikovska. Part Emily the Strange part whiny brat. Certainly a different side of her than we’ve seen before. Still not liking this side of Nicole Kidman, but I’m okay with that. We’ll always have Moulin Rouge. We also could have used more than two scenes of Jacki Weaver.
Oh also, this film left me with a wicked craving for chocolate ice cream.
Stoker – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n