A Cure for Wellness (2016)

Two years ago when "A Cure for Wellness" was released I decided to skip it seeing the ratings it got. Obviously I changed my mind, given the lack of time for reaching the cinema to see something newer. Good decision...

The story goes like this: Mr. Lockhart, an employee of a financial company on Wall Street gets sent somewhere in the Swiss Alps to take his boss back to New York from the sanatorium where he went. Reaching the place, what he finds there is a baths resort with a castle rebuilt after the local inhabitants decided two centuries ago to burn it down along with his owner, a baron with very unorthodox habits. Here comes the dark story, where we find out piece by piece details on the obsession of the baron with pure bloodline + the resulting incest with his own sister. Getting back to the present day, the location is used for treating patients who are mostly above 50 and rich enough to afford "the cure". The cure is something created by the director of the institution, consisting in an ensemble of water-based treatments, which strange enough we finally find out that actually dehydrates the patients. Despite the effect, everybody seems to feel more and more better, and even more we're reaching the conclusion that nobody wants to leave the place. Obviously, an enigma for the young Lockhart who doesn't manage to get his boss back, and on top of that he gets into the position of being a patient with a cast on his leg after his leaving attempt is stopped by a ... buck.

The movie has plenty of scenes that might generate a "what the... ?", but this is matched by the number of metaphors behind and the symbolism. From dehydrating the "wellness" in the title, up to more subtle stuff. There are also plot holes, but you typically can fill these on your own. It's somehow compensating the predictability of the movie. There's nothing surprising - you can see where all goes starting from half the movie onward, if not earlier. The movie is long, but doesn't bore. Contrary to the critics received this length has a purpose - the story you see coming is built brick by brick for making the impact more intense. And it works... The direction and partially the story belong to Gore Verbinski, and if "The Ring" tells you something, and you were able to appreciate also "Lone Ranger" (which got pretty much the same bashing from the critics), you can expect the same way of building the whole movie atmosphere - there are elements on top of other elements - camera work, sound, editing, acting taking you there. There's an excellent and complete movie experience. To compare this with something what we have here is a much more complex version of "Get Out" combined with some "Eliza Graves" feeling, but clearly better than both. It's really not worth the time to start debating why the critics praised "Get Out" so highly just because it touches a social aspect and it's better to be politically correct these days than objective - we don't have exploited black population here, so the rest doesn't matter. Just watch this, and decide which is more "movie" out of the two...

Rating: 4 out of 5