Full disclosure: I first saw A Cure For Wellness a few weeks ago; however, I put off reviewing it until now because I didn't have much to say about it at that point. Now that some time has passed, I now feel comfortable giving it the Matinee Everyday treatment. On with the show!
A Cure For Wellness might be the first movie I've reviewed and liked on this blog that I'm not sure if I can recommend. It's one of the few recent movies that's been described as divisive or polarizing and actually earns that description. Those who love it tend to defend it with a fiery passion. Those who hate it loathe it as if the film came alive, murdered their pets, burned their houses down and salted the earth underneath the land they were built in. As for my thoughts, I'm leaning rather positively on this flick.
Make no mistake: this isn't to say I'm guaranteeing you'll like this movie (there's a 50/50 chance you'll despise this thing). That being the case, I would recommend anyone who's even remotely curious about this movie to go give it a try. Why? Because, quite frankly, I have my doubts that there's going anything like this in theaters any time soon (especially on such a mainstream level).
Discussion of the plot for A Cure For Wellness is a pointless undertaking both because it would spoil some of the film's sickest, most twisted twists and story isn't director Gore Verbinski's primary focal point here. What Verbinski sets out to do here is create what is essentially a extended visual moodpiece and it works for the most part. The imagery on display here is undoubtedly striking and it'd be outright criminal to deny this film a Best Production Design nomination.
You're probably asking why I'm being so skiddish about giving this film a pass or fail. Well, the answer is quite simple: A Cure For Wellness is... absolutely disgusting. While the film looks gorgeous, it sinks to the lowest low possible and somehow manages to find even deeper levels of depravity to sink to. If you don't come out of this movie feeling even remotely ill, you deserve a medal. Again, describing some of said disturbing details would make up for a great deal of spoilers; but, I'll say this: its unlikely you're going to look at eels the same way again after sitting through this flick. Even most of what I like about this film comes from the visuals and the atmosphere, the acting's also pretty solid. Dane DeHaan manages to keep his head above water amidst the vile madness and Jason Isaacs turns in some spectacularly creepy work. Also, Benjamin Wallfisch brings a brilliantly haunting yet dreamlike score to complement the insane events that play out over the film's gaudy 146 minutes.
Ultimately, while it's certainly excessive in some respects (both in content and especially the runtime), I was satisfied with what I got here. As both a work of gothic horror and auteur filmmaking, it certainly delivers some new things for those areas. It just isn't everyone's cup of tea (which is just fine by me).
A CURE FOR WELLNESS gets a modest rating of...
HEY, THAT'S PRETTY GOOD out of TEN
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