Is STAY a Misunderstood Gem? - Analyzed and Explained

have you ever picked up a movie in a store glancing at the talent involved only to realize you've never even heard of it before perhaps you decided to watch said film only to find yourself perplexed to the point of annoyance strange editing choices plagued your OCD flat seemingly emotionless performances caused a disconnect with the characters and your attention wandered until you began focusing on Ewan McGregor's curiously hi pant legs that was my experience with stay a film released in the fall of 2005 starring Ewan McGregor Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling it was directed by Marc Forster who at the time was mostly known for monsters ball in Finding Neverland it was written by David Benioff who had written the novel and screenplay for 25th hour and the screenplay for Troy and he since become more recognized as one of the primary creative forces behind Game of Thrones the film only grossed about three million dollars domestically and was tossed out of theaters in a couple weeks with stay I found myself watching the film and snippets over the course of a few days because it just wasn't gripping me I genuinely didn't care for it and then it ended and the rug was pulled out from beneath me and without even thinking about it I instantly began watching the film a second time with a vastly different outlook everything had changed and I was convinced I was watching a forgotten gem buried deep within the bargain bins at Best Buy for the past 11 years in 2005 stay debuted to crushingly awful reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes only 27% of critics positively reviewed it with an average rating of four point six out of ten from all those reviews I've seen a phrase drifting around the film community for many years usually spouted off by someone defending a film they loved against an onslaught of bad reviews they just didn't get it generally in most cases I find that to be a load of crap if you liked a movie cool if you cool more power to you it simply doesn't have an effect on me but in the case of stay as I began reading through these reviews I actually do feel that many critics back in oh five honestly didn't get it the entire film works you just have to think Thank You Fox hey movies that require people to sit back and think about what they've just seen are often unpopular with audiences many people would just like to go to the movies to have fun and would rather not leave the theater confuse about what they just watched this is common and most film buffs have all had an experience where they've just seen an impactful artistic film and find themselves the only person present defending it from an onslaught of hate it's an entirely different beast with film critics I personally love to be challenged by a film I can easily become fascinated with a difficult movie and find myself re watching key scenes over and over trying to come up with my own theories but not all critics are like that some critics don't appreciate being challenged by a film because this almost insults them words like pretentious get thrown around a lot to describe such films because no one likes to feel dumb but I don't find stay pretentious in the least to me that term is useful to describe films that seem to be talking down to you as if the director and writer are perched on their ivory tower overseeing all the lowly commoners attending their art piece stay is nothing like that it's simply a smart and clever film one ballsy enough to risk alienating its audience almost completely upon first viewing to be fair not all critics loathed stay one in particular saw something special in the film Roger Ebert gave it three-and-a-half out of four stars and published a review that actually discussed the filmmaking on display rather than tossing together a few insulting $5 words because that's just what film critics do right I think Ebert was very wise here because over the years stay has developed a small but passionate fanbase and I hope this video sheds some light on the film and encourages more people to seek it out and decades past if a film opened to poor reviews it had the ability to gain new life on home video or as more people saw it and examined it in the 60s when many critics dismissed 2001 a Space Odyssey as here comes that word again pretentious Ebert was also one of the few who got it right we know today that it's a masterpiece of science fiction and a very prophetic film even a film like predator one of the best action movies ever made got poor reviews initially and has since become a classic once again Ebert got it right these films have found their audience today but there's something neither of them had to deal with in doing so a majority opinion today the Internet has given us things like Rotten Tomatoes IMDB likes retweets subscribers and followers we give numbers a great amount of value and in some ways we absolutely should but today once a film has been assigned a consensus amongst audiences it seems the film is doomed to forever carry that with it and a movie like stay has been crushed beneath the weight of that for 11 years when I grew up I discovered the Sandlot because I rented it from the library I wanted to see it and so I saw it and I've always loved it ever since but if rotten tomatoes had existed back in the 90s I may have looked it up seen its rating and thought twice about renting it I think you get my point films that receive negative reviews receive negative press then people begin to feel comfortable hating it and a majority opinion rules does stay deserve the reaction it got let's examine the film from beginning to end and be warned this will be spoiler filled so I encourage you to watch the film if you haven't already then return to this point in the video the film opens with a brilliantly staged POV car crash ending on an upwards angle of the Brooklyn Bridge Henry Letham played by Gosling appears to be casually sitting by this disaster as if he was the cause of it an abrupt cut morphs Henry's face into our main character Sam played by McGregor he awakes in bed curiously grasping a wedding ring pay close attention to the paintings behind Sam they're important we transition again to Sam on a bicycle heading to work where we meet Lila played by watts Sam tells her their neighbors baby kept him up all night our neighbors don't have a baby she tells him but Sam vanishes from the area before the conversation can get much farther upon first viewing these moments feel awkward and flat and the editing comes off showy and pointless next Henri meets Sam who first tells him that it's going to hail despite sunny weather before retracting realizing that his regular therapist isn't there this is the first time I began to notice that Gosling was the only actor truly putting in 110% on my first viewing I found myself disappointed in the performance is given by McGregor and Watts and continuously drawn to goslings magnetic work having seen the film four times now I know this wasn't a mistake nor was this McGregor and Watts sleepwalking through their roles more on this later in this scene we learned that Henry is majoring in fine art and that he feels deeply guilty about a car accident the editing here is purposefully unconventional with cuts inter spliced with characters on the same side of the frame this is rare as editing and film is commonly designed to keep the eye moving from side to side thus keeping our attention but this also isn't a mistake this is by design Henry leave saying he wants to get home before the hail starts and we pan left to salmon lila talking the filmmakers denying us our traditional cutaway to an establishing shot this is the first scene that we get a look at Sam's curiously high pant legs this wasn't due to poor costume design it actually reoccurs throughout the entire film lila tears up her drawing of sam declaring it and we are shown that lila has once attempted suicide also just as henry predicted Hales next we get a quick insert of a woman in a car and then a scene where Henry puts out a cigarette on his arm pay close attention to the passengers on this train the Train doors open and out walks Lila except now she's in her apartment she expresses even more doubt about her future as an artist fearing that no one will remember her then Henri meets Sam again inquiring about the wedding ring and the painting in his office in a random moment he admits he can no longer understand the whither man Henry then admits to hearing voices and he explains what they're saying I didn't move am I not supposed to move on I can't watch anymore stay with me but they're interrupted by Sam's friend remember this guy's face here we're reminded again about Henry's terrible guilt in fact we learned that he wants to kill himself in three days directly after this scene a woman is shown at a mental hospital screaming okay now let go after visiting a friend to inform him that his patient may attempt suicide Sam is counting Lila's pills then another abrupt cut has Sam jump from one side of the room to another after a quick conversation about Henry's suicidal nature the water from the bathtub begins to reflect on the window before we cut away to the bathtub next we see Henry at an art lecture while he becomes aware that he's being watched overhead by Sam upon leaving Sam is now curiously on the next floor down having somehow teleported there they discussed the art pieces around them and then the room is overtaken by twins and triplets no explanation is given for this and to be honest on my first viewing I didn't even notice Henry now says the reason he wants to kill himself on Saturday is because it's his 21st birthday we also learn here that Henry's parents have passed away the scene continues and their conversation plays out over multiple cuts that are actually showing the same angle yet the position of the characters is shifting then they walk past a pillar emerging from the opposite side they walk past another and Sam has switched sides with Henry he talks about a girl he wanted to marry named Athena he says he bought her a ring that looks just like the one Sam was holding earlier he says she is gone and then we're almost instantly in an aquarium where two people say not going to make it then we travel through the water back to Sam and Lila and take note of the sound of a baby crying this could be mistaken for the walrus on first viewing but it is absolutely a baby in this scene we learned that Lila has stopped taking her meds harkening back to Sam earlier counting her pills she says she can't paint on meds and another abrupt cut occurs again we hear a baby crying in the background before the scene ends Lila calls Sam by the name Henry take note of the fact that they're on the 21st floor then we meet Leon Patterson played by Bob Hoskins one of Sam's friends who is blind they share a chess match while Leon recounts a tale about a young boy wishing his father would wake up because he's burning it's a tale recounted by Sigmund Freud commonly referred to as the burning child or the burning boy it's about a father who dreams his child is burning and wakes to find it actually happening but the child is attempting to wake his father up because his father doesn't notice that he's on fire Henry suddenly appears only to be greatly taken aback by Leon's presence and later says that's his father even though he's positive his father is actually dead brief inserts of Leon dead are shown here as well as a flash of a family photo he continues to suffer with the belief that he's responsible for their deaths he then says in troubles will cease unfortunate smiling and then we get an insert of Lila's face turning into Athena's saying the words yes Henry this is one of the most important parts of the entire movie for deciphering the film's structure after being chased through a maze of stairs Sam investigates Henry's apartment where he finds the words forgive me written across the walls an answering machine plays the voice of Sam saying Henry listen stay with me okay listen to my voice heavily next a boy approaches Henry asking his mother mommy is having aa nine while eating Chinese food Sam and Lila discuss Henry's favorite artist who just so happened to have killed himself on his 21st birthday then Lila describes in gruesome detail how she attempted to end her life once before opening a fortune cookie reciting these words your troubles will cease and fortune will smile upon you soon were thrown through multiple cuts as Sam jumps from one location to the next very rapidly calling Henry's former therapist Beth who says Beth and 9s must back while approaching Beth a baby is heard crying again she once again recites the words I didn't touch him I know you're not supposed to move them and suggests that Sam visit Henry's mother who's supposed to be dead outside the car window we transitioned from city to country instantly and Sam is already on the porch as he's leaving the car if you weren't curious already about the film structure this is where things get really nuts the house is empty safe for the mother and the dog she randomly states that she's been alone in the house for 1,000 years she begins to express that she feels hated and unwanted and the edits get even more aggressive she believes that Sam is Henry her son she states that Henry loved to go to the zoo to watch the walrus swim with no explanation she begins to believe from her head while saying she knows he didn't mean to harm anyone the dog attacks Sam and then we're in a room I don't want to call it a hospital or a doctor's office because it seems purposefully different than that there's also a very old phone on the wall that just seems out of place the sheriff shows up to tell us that Henry's mom has been long dead and there's no way he could have been talking with her then Henry visits a strip club and with no explanation images from his past begin playing on a screen their family photos images of the Brooklyn Bridge even an image of a boy watching a man at the zoo we're reminded here of the incredible guilt he feels from something he's done at this point the cuts in the film began to grow even stranger henry appears at Sam's house more confusion abounds as Henry tries to comprehend how his parents could possibly be alive notice the door number they stand in front of when their argument breaks out the characters begin reciting each other's dialogue even switching places momentarily they have a sobering conversation about suicide before Henry pulls a gun on Sam admitting to killing his parents Sam then ventures into the city searching for Athena the girl that Henry wanted to propose to he eventually catches a break when a waitress tells him where to find Athena this waitress is played by the same woman from the mental hospital earlier Sam finds Athena practicing her lines from an upcoming play of Hamlet understanding the story of Hamlet is very important to understanding the story of stay perhaps the most famous scene from Hamlet is the to be or not to be scene in which Hamlet muses about suicide and death and whether or not living with pain is better than dying and ending it all interestingly Gosling's character is named Henry Letham which is an anagram of Hamlet Athena recounts her knowledge of Henry which as she says it involves an odd feeling that she's known him from somewhere before a feeling that sam seems to share she says she'll take Sam to an art book store that Henry likes and leads him down a flight of stairs before completely vanishing causing Sam to fall down the staircase images of Henry's past flash before our eyes and Sam travels back up again to find the exact same scene playing out for him again the next sequence with Henry and his father is easily one of the strangest in the entire film which again does make sense and I'll discuss it later Henry begs his father to look at him and actually see him and touches him causing his father to regain his eyesight his father stares at Henry as if he's seeing him for the first time we then get another flash of the car crash revealing that Athena Henry and both of his parents were in the car when the accident occurred Sam finds the bookstore that Henry enjoyed going to that has his paintings hung up the owner of the shop also happens to be the same older man on the train earlier who then asks Sam if Henry has what it takes to really make it as an artist we transition to Henry exiting a bus watching Athena at a dance class through the window unable to go to her next Lila is hanging one of Henry's paintings and Sam calls her discovering that Henry's favorite artist killed himself on the Brooklyn Bridge Liane shows up proclaiming that the world is an illusion and Lila runs to the Brooklyn Bridge after discovering that all her paintings are Henry's in a blink and you'll miss it moment at the bottom of the staircase lies a punctured tire and a broken headlight Henry has now seen contemplating wedding jewelry when the boy returns to ask again his head then begins to bleed like his mother's earlier and the entire city stops to look at him this is when Henry starts to connect things and blurs by Sam on opposite trains Sam runs for the bridge past artwork with Henry's face on it as the very atmosphere around them begins to move and shudder Sam and Henry meet each other on the bridge Henry tell Sam that he's real but he knows Sam is just trying to save him but he's too late this dialog works for what Sam believes is the truth in this moment and for what the film is actually about Henry puts the gun into his mouth and shoots and we are now on the bridge with Sam kneeling over Henry trying to revive him Beth now appears saying she was the first one on the scene repeating these lines I have her right in front of me it was right in front of me I was the first one here I didn't I know you have a phone Lila shows up and watches Henry while Sam declares that Henry's girlfriend and parents are dead in the car behind them Lila and Sam appear here to be meeting for the first time as a crowd gathers around Henry we learned that Lila is a nurse and Sam is a doctor he finds Henry's wallet and a wedding ring falls out Henry thinks the light streaming above him is Hale he asks them to forgive him we hear a baby crying in a car and Henry reaches for the wedding ring a woman appears regretfully saying he's just a kid then that boy reappears saying mom is heaven in the movies most heartbreaking scene Henry mistakes Lila for Athena asking her to marry him she agrees understanding what's really happening to Henry here a man on the street says he's not going to make it Henry begins to fade and is put on a stretcher we pan up to see the top of the Brooklyn Bridge the film seems to suggest that Henry is still taking in his surroundings despite the fact that his body has shut down and he is likely dead or very close to it just before Sam and Lila agreed to get coffee flashes from earlier events are seen and as we rise upwards take note of the number on top of the ambulance so what the hell did we just see a rather brilliant piece of filmmaking the easiest way to describe this film is to break down the story into two parts things that actually occurred and things that were in Henry's mind the events that actually occurred are as follows Henry Athena and his parents get into a terrible car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge after his tire blows out Henry is the only one who survives but only for a brief while a woman named Beth is the first person on the scene but Sam a doctor soon arrives to care for Henry and Lila a nurse shows up as well as Henry fades he hears that everyone he loved is in the car behind them and he asks Lila to marry him thinking she's actually Athena due to his severe head trauma Henry dies and Sam and Lila agreed to get coffee together because neither of them feel they'll be able to sleep everything else in the film can be attributed to a lucid dream state or hallucination that Henry was having as he lay on the pavement dying this is why so many odd purposeful continuity errors occurred in the film and white character suddenly appeared in places with no real explanation of how they arrived there when we dream do we ever really remember how we got somewhere or are we suddenly just there so let's look at the film differently now that we know the truth Sam is really just an imagined version of the doctor that's kneeling above Henry into opening Henry's paintings are clearly visible behind Sam in his apartment and Sam is already grasping Henry's wedding ring in the film Sam had complained about a baby crying keeping him up all night this is because of the baby crying in the car across from Henry as he dies the same baby is heard throughout Henry's dream multiple times because the baby cries throughout the entirety of Henry's death in the real world also as stated earlier it seemed like Henry was the only character with well-rounded emotion of any kind with Gosling giving the best performance and McGregor and Watts feeling oddly flat this is because this is Henry's dream and he knows himself the best these two people he's manifesting in his brain are just that manifestations false representations of actual people this is why the film connects the most with Henry's character in the first scene where Sam meets Henry he's taken aback by the absence of his former therapist Beth wondering why Sam has replaced her this is because in the real world Beth was the first woman on the scene of the accident who was later replaced with Sam who tries to help Henry Henry also commented that it was going to Hale because as he lay on the dying he believes he sees hail falling from the sky in Henry's dream Lila is an artist facing a lot of self-doubt tell me I'm good you're good tell me they'll remember me she has once attempted suicide and believes all her work to be Henry is dreaming Lila this way because this is how he likely feels there are many references to Henry making it as an artist and doubt on whether or not he's good enough so what do you think is he gonna make it I think he's got what it takes it's also likely that Henry has attempted suicide in the past and is using the characters inhabiting his dream to work through his own inner demons in the real world as bystanders gather around Henry's dying body they begin to inhabit his dream as well the man on the train and the bookstore is simply a man observing the accident scene the crazy lady in the hospital and the waitress repeats her lines as well virtually every character within Henry's dream is gathered around his body on the bridge there was also a scene earlier in which Henry randomly declared he no longer understands the weatherman to me this scene served as a hilarious reminder of how funny our dreams can be when we explained them to people have you ever had such a weird dream that you laugh as you explain it to someone imagine explaining that you just dreamt that you could no longer understand the weatherman I know I've certainly had strange dreams like that Henry also told Sam here that he is hearing voices and he tells him what they are these voices are simply the words spoken by the people that are surrounding him on the bridge as he fades as Henry's dream plays on the editing in the film gets more and more odd and as stated this was on purpose as Henry is dying on the bridge his brain cells are also dying he's beginning to lose his battle to stay alive and his hallucinatory dream state grows worse as his dream begins to cave in on itself this is why the editing grows more more confusing as the film goes on after Henry says he wants to kill himself on his 21st birthday the number 21 begins showing up everywhere in the film and we learn of the guilt that Henry is feeling as he dies this is why the words forgive me permeate many moments of his dream as he dies he feels tremendous guilt for being the one driving the car during the accident when we are shown Henry observing the manatees at the zoo this is a reminder of his childhood love of the aquarium which his mother mentions as well we're even shown a quick flash of a photo of this when Henry's past is shown in the strip club scene next we met Leon Henry's dad who in his dream is blind why was this this is likely because Henry doesn't feel appreciated or even noticed by his father perhaps Henry's father takes no note of his son's art and Henry is hurt by this this theory is strengthened by the tale of the burning boy that his father recites about a boy who was burning trying to wake his father who isn't noticing this would also explain the scene in which Henry forcibly makes his father's sight return he wants his father to see him for who he really is he wants his father to open his eyes this makes perfect sense because dreams are often our way of obtaining something we don't have in reality or exploring some hidden emotions that we've locked away after Henry discovers his father is in his dream he flips out and the scene ends with a shot of Athena saying this gives us a major clue this tells us that at this point in reality Henry has just asked Lila to marry him thinking that she is actually Athena henry is truly beginning to fade here and at this point in the dream the world of his dream begins crumbling even more because of this clue we can easily decipher the timeline of what is happening in the real world while Henry is dreaming when Lila is describing her attempt at suicide it's likely because this is what Henry once tried to do as well and he's using this dream to work through his desire to keep living after visiting Beth who in reality is simply the first woman on the scene of this accident Henry's dream gets even more jumbled as he nears death Sam meets Henry's mother who begins bleeding out from her head wound that Henry is likely imagining she has the presence of Henry's childhood dog is probably simply there due to Henry recalling the past when Sam meets Athena she mentions feeling like she's known Henry for a long time a feeling Sam seems to acknowledge being that they are simply subjects of Henry's subconscious this makes perfect sense the following sequence where Henry falls down a flight of stairs is likely a tribute to all of those falling dreams we've all had before the scene where Henry is watching Athena dance I believe is due to the painful realization that Henry has as he dies that he can never see her again that there's absolutely nothing he can do they are forever separated and he can't go to her when Lila and Sam discovered that Henry's favorite artist killed himself on the Brooklyn Bridge they both raced to get there I mentioned one specific moment where a punctured tire and a headlight lay at the bottom of the stairs this is likely pieces of the car wreckage that Henry has inserted into his dream as Henry stands before the wedding jewelry he begins to bleed out in front of people the same people who are standing over his dying body a realization is setting in he's dreaming this happens to many of us in our dreams that moment when we realize we are dreaming is usually right before we wake up as Henry nears death in the real world world of his dream begins to fade as the cinematography makes clear and Henry kills himself forcing himself out of his hallucinatory state because if you've seen inception you know dying in a dream forces you to wake up now we see all of these moments connect and make sense Henry imagined a world in which he attempted to work through his last remaining feelings guilt and unrequited love that of a girl and that of his parents the people in his dream like Sam and Lila are simply manifestations of his own life and feelings he uses them to work through his demons the most confusing aspect of the movie for me is the very end when sam asks lila for coffee a few inserts of the dream appear here this could be because Henry's brain is still operating as his body fully dies but that would seem to indicate that even this specific moment is a dream to be completely honest I'm still a little unsure of the meaning of this moment there is an alternate theory that Henry planned to kill Athena and his parents on the bridge recreating what his favorite artist had done on his birthday I don't believe this to be true for one Henry feels an incredible amount of guilt and constantly asks for forgiveness but the main reason I don't give this theory any merit is because we are shown Henry's tire blowout this is not something a depressed college student plans this was clearly an accident so what the hell was with Sam's pants why are they purposefully too short in every scene the answer is simple what happens to trousers when you kneel down the legs ride up Henry's view of Sam on the bridge is of him crouching down over him so in every moment of Henry's dream Sam's pants look like that damn so his stay really the muddled contrived and pretentious art house BS that critics exclaimed it to be 11 years ago not even remotely this is an extremely smart film with an absurd amount of creativity and thought behind it it is that rare film that perhaps shouldn't even be reviewed until seen a second time is it an unseen forgotten masterpiece time will tell but it's certainly a film worth revisiting guys I hope you like my in-depth analysis of stay if you feel this film deserves more note share this video around maybe show it to people who didn't appreciate the movie maybe show it to somebody who does like the movie I don't know I'm just saying stay deserves more attention you guys are the best thank you so much as always for watching and if you like this you can click right here and get stuck mine eyes

Channel: Chris Stuckmann

Views: 584,218

Rating: 4.9402618 out of 5

Keywords: Stay, 2005, Movie Review, Chris Stuckmann, Analyzed, Explained, Explanation, Ending, Spoilers, Reviews, Scene, Clip, HD, Full Movie, Trailer, Teaser, Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Ryan Gosling, Marc Forster, David Benioff, Game of Thrones, Bob Hoskins, Janeane Garofalo, BD Wong, Mark Margolis, Dream, Roger Ebert, Rotten Tomatoes, Critics, Film, Analysis, Is STAY a Misunderstood Gem

Id: N3BU3yECMqM

Length: 32min 50sec (1970 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 28 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Daniel3Lancer]

Stuckmann did good.

[u/Gadsa2]

wow, fantastic analysis. I love Stuckmann, glad to see him put so much work into something he loves

[u/DatBowl]

This movie really reminds me of Synechdoche, New York.

[u/[deleted]]

Stay is an awful title