The thriller of the 21st century has been defined by M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, from the emotionally disturbed principal character to the now cliché “surprise” finale. In Marc Forster’s Stay, Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) is in the Haley Joel Osment role, but now the character, Henry Lethem, has grown up, killed his parents and wants to kill himself on the Brooklyn Bridge on his 21st birthday. Ewan McGregor plays Sam Foster, the curious psychiatrist. As the plot progresses, Foster is attracted to Lethem’s case, but his mere interest leads to Foster’s being assimilated into Lethem’s subconscious.
As soon as Foster begins to see his surroundings via Henry’s perception – repeated scenarios, distorted visions, faint, incoherent voices in the background – the film breaks out of The Sixth Sense mold and, instead, borrows from Waking Life. The juxtaposition of and blurred boundary between the states of being awake or asleep, however, becomes dull and, in fact, makes the plot more convoluted than necessary, especially without the animation and philosophical monologues of Richard Linklater’s film. But the film veers back to The Sixth Sense frame by the final scene for the routine ending.
While Stay is fairly consistent and linear, some minor aspects remain unresolved. In Foster’s first session with Lethem, for example, he predicts the occurrence of a hail storm later in the day. The event’s significance is never revisited and has no relevance to Lethem’s fate.
Similarly, toward the end of the film Lethem visits a fellow psychiatrist, played by Bob Hoskins; although he is blind at the beginning, his sight is restored after the visit. Is Henry supposed to be a suicidal college student or a healer with clairvoyant tendencies? And, if he is indeed both, why is the latter obscured by the former and regarded as a minor aspect of his condition?
The plot inconsistencies are never explained, although McGregor and Gosling are convincing in their roles. Both actors attempt to break out of their stock characters and enliven the predictable dialogue. The film inevitably falls into the shadow of The Sixth Sense, with grotesque dead people included, but fails to match its prototype.
Forster, who directed Finding Neverland and Monster’s Ball, attempts more mainstream fare with Stay. The market for the film is ambiguous, however, especially with a suicidal principal character and a plot that alternates between reality and the dream-like state of Henry’s subconscious.
Stay was kept on the shelf for almost two years, both to keep it from competing with Finding Neverland, and so Forster could continue to edit. As a final product, the film showcases McGregor and Gosling’s strong performances, although the script’s unoriginal aspects make it forgettable in comparison to Forster’s other films. With the exception of the suicide aspect, the film has been seen by audiences before – in 1999. m
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