Stay

For a movie that claims to be a psychological thriller, Stay, by critically acclaimed director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball), is strangely lacking in thrills. Hot-shot actors, with much better projects ahead of and behind them, can't manage to vivify a pseudo-cerebral plot with uncharacteristically bland performances. A warning to Ryan Gosling fans and admirers: if you're tempted to watch the movie just because he's hot, just go watch The Notebook again. Seriously.

Here's the plot: in a grim urban landscape, frustrated artist/student Henry Letham (Gosling) tells his shrink Dr. Sam Foster (an overly-domesticated Ewan MacGregor) that he's going to kill himself in three days-and that's pretty much all there is to it. Dr. Foster wants to prevent it from happening (obvi) but by the end of the movie, you're so pointlessly confused that you'd rather him just get it over with already so you can go home, pound a cold one and turn on SportsCenter. Or The Notebook for the 100th time.

Gosling, whose character drifts in and out of the film, shows signs of building credible acting chops, but ultimately tries too darn hard to be cryptic. Listen, cowboy, just stick with the epic loverboy roles-there are worse ways to be typecast.

The talented and well-cast Naomi Watts provides the only near-compelling moments of the film as Dr. Foster's girlfriend, who has suicidal tendencies of her own. Watts pulls off the intriguing concurrence of frailty and empowerment within a self-destructive survivor, but the script is foolishly de-sexualized (absolutely zero sparks between Watts and MacGregor), and her role in the plot is pointedly underdeveloped.

To be fair to the actors, the worst part of the movie is that the plot never seems to go anywhere. The images and chronology get more confusing and the tragically medicated and highly uninteresting MacGregor just gets more frantic. The film never resolves its riddle of illusion, seeming content instead to end with a pompous mixture of mystery and neon lights. But at least the title delivers a clear-cut message: Stay home.