M&M: Stay

Dear reader,

in 2005 the movie “Stay” came out, one of my favourite movies. The story is somewhat dark and the ending is frustratingly open. What I like most though are the visual elements: the use of colours and transitions from one scene to another. Also I like Ewan McGregor and Ryan Gosling, who are both playing the lead roles in this movie.

Ryan Gosling is playing Henry Letham, a young man, who we see driving a car at the beginning. Then a tire blows and an accident happens. Cut. He's sitting on the street and as the camera moves away from him allowing us a wider view of the scene, we see the car burning behind him. He stands up and just walks along the street.

The psychiatrist Dr. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) had a bad night and overslept. But this should only be the beginning of a couple of very strange days for him. On the university campus he meets his friend and teacher Lila (Naomi Watts), who asks him what's wrong. The neighbours baby kept him awake. Lila is confused. The neighbours are 80 years old. Sam takes over for a sick colleague, among her patients is also Henry. He doesn't like the fact that suddenly someone else is his therapist. Is his therapist unable to cope with him and let that other one take over? But eventually Henry opens up and tells about his plan: “Saturday. Midnight.” That's when he's going to kill himself. On his 21^st birthday.

Over the course of this movie, we see Henry and others driving in a car. Those scenes in the car are from a different time or indeed a different world(?) than the rest and in fact most part of the movie. I think I don't anticipate too much, when I write, that Henry in fact was badly injured during the car accident and is about to die. The psychiatrist “story” is all in his head and is his way of thinking whether he wants to live or die. He wants to live really. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone to Sam for help, who is in reality the driver of another car and now is giving first aid. Another woman, who Henry in his mind makes to be Sam's girlfriend, checks the car and tells him that the others are dead. Many things and people in the movie are twisted in Henry's head and used for the reality in his mind. Finding those things, what is used and how and finding what's reality, makes the movie fun and interesting for me. Henry's full name is Henry Letham. Letham being an anagram for Hamlet. A young woman, who served Henry a couple of times in a diner and could maybe help Henry is also actually rehearsing for a Hamlet play.

Some wonder about the ending and what Henry's choice was in the end. Because we never actually see whether he is dead or alive. Many are certain that his decision is obvious however. Watch the movie and make your own decision about that. For those of you who like rather calm soundtracks “Stay” might be one for you. It was written and played by Asche & Spencer.

Until next blog,

sarah