A Cure for Wellness (2016)
Day 75 of Sobriety. Too long. Far too long. So, so long! There, that’s that out of the way.
A Cure for Wellness
is about a young and highly ambitions corporate executive who is sent
to retrieve his company’s CEO from a mysterious health facility in the
Swiss Alps, where he disappeared apparently after having some kind of
breakdown. Upon arriving at the facility’s remote mountain location, the
young businessman finds that there is something strange and disturbing
afoot.
The film was directed by Gore Verbinski, who made the 2002 US remake of The Ring, and several of the films in the Pirates of the Caribbean
franchise. Unsurprisingly, therefore, this film is a mega-budgeted
affair, 
and it certainly looks like one. It is gorgeous to look at,
particularly the spectacular depiction of the remote Swiss Alps and the
elaborate gothic castle that the health facility is housed in. All of
the acting is solid. Mia Goth, who plays a mysterious and disturbed
young resident of the facility, is worthy of special mention. As seems
to be her forte, she provides a very effective combination of prettiness
and creepiness, even when her role requires her to do some rather
strange and inexplicable things, like suddenly plaster herself with
bright red lipstick near the end for no discernible reason.
and it certainly looks like one. It is gorgeous to look at,
particularly the spectacular depiction of the remote Swiss Alps and the
elaborate gothic castle that the health facility is housed in. All of
the acting is solid. Mia Goth, who plays a mysterious and disturbed
young resident of the facility, is worthy of special mention. As seems
to be her forte, she provides a very effective combination of prettiness
and creepiness, even when her role requires her to do some rather
strange and inexplicable things, like suddenly plaster herself with
bright red lipstick near the end for no discernible reason.At
its heart, the film’s plot is very much in the vein of a goofy gothic
“mad scientist” yarn, a similar tale might well have been told in the
50s or 60s by directors like Jess Franco, Roger Corman, or perhaps even
by Hammer Films. The premise is really nothing that we haven’t seen
before, but it is interesting enough. The problem is that it pretends to
be so much more, and it really isn’t. And by God it’s long! Just too
long. There, I said it again. There may well be an entertaining
90-minute film buried somewhere inside this grinding two-and-a-half-hour
endurance test, but as it is I spent the last hour just praying for it
to finally end. A real shame considering its visual beauty and the
robust performances of the cast.
by Hammer Films. The premise is really nothing that we haven’t seen
before, but it is interesting enough. The problem is that it pretends to
be so much more, and it really isn’t. And by God it’s long! Just too
long. There, I said it again. There may well be an entertaining
90-minute film buried somewhere inside this grinding two-and-a-half-hour
endurance test, but as it is I spent the last hour just praying for it
to finally end. A real shame considering its visual beauty and the
robust performances of the cast.
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