NEW BLOOD: A CURE FOR WELLNESS

A CURE FOR WELLNESS
Regency
2017 Color
146 Mins.
Horror/Thriller
Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth and Celia Imrie star.
Written by Justin Haythe
Directed by Gore Verbinski
Rated R for language, violence, gore, nudity and sexuality.

Do you ever feel like you're the last person to the party? When I first saw trailers for this film I was so excited. I thought it looked great. A genre picture with intelligence, new ideas and a budget to back it up, finally. But as the film's release drew closer negative buzz began to pop up. Still I kept my hopes up. I thought this may be one of those that critics just don't get . They are just missing the deeper meaning here. And than this weekends box office a paltry 4 Million. I was indeed only one of the few that actually went to see this cinematic dreck. Well I was obviously wrong. A Cure for Wellness is a big disappointment on every conceivable level.

The film starts off promising with a scene of an every day guy dying of a heart attack while at the office. This led me to believe that film would offer some deeper subtext about our daily lives and their misdirection. Well no such luck, because that scene really has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. As we move along we meet Lockhart played by Dehaan). A young ruthless sort of business personality who is assigned to go find the company's CEO who has given notice after spending the weekend at a spa in Switzerland. Once he gets there he discovers a creepy, stylish hospital in which all the residents seem oddly happy. He gets into a horrible car accident and awakens as a patient in the facility. Although he presses the subject of leaving he still wishes to speak to and bring back his CEO. When finally managing to grab some time with him, he convinces him to return to the city to sort out some business dealings. But upon leaving he discovers he has changed his mind. Lockhart of course stays there and begins to learn about the mysterious history that surrounds the facility and gets acquainted with a young woman who lives there all the while subjecting himself to their questionable medication and treatments involving a magical water supply. After long enough he discovers some horrific (but expected) truths and tries to flee but learns they have no intentions of letting him leave.

 I wish this movie had a blip of originality to it. Everything in the film seems stolen from other better films from Phantiom of the opera to shutter island to even Flowers in the Attic. Even  down to those stylish visuals you see in the trailers, so unimpressive in the final film. I'm not going to spoil what it's ultimately about. But I will say that anyone familiar with the genre will see it coming from a mile away. The cast is decent and does what they can with their underwritten roles. DeHaan, so good in Chronicle is wasted here. His Lockhart is a confusing man with confusing motivations that most of the time just seem so non sensical. 

Gore Verbinski the acclaimed directed of the Ring and Pirates has created one hell of an epic mess here. There's so many scenes that should have been cut and others that were obviously cut that could have made the proceedings just a bit more coherent. The film doesn't seem to know what it wants to be or what it's actually about. There are so many loose ends left on the table and others that come to fruition in such a complete unsatisfying way it's hard to even know what the makers ultimate intentions were. The film offers no subtext or social commentary and is in fact a very shallow view.

 Although I don't like the film I will say that it's not terrible. It seems as though there might be a good film buried in this unforgivably long 146 Minute mess with some editing and focus but the end result leaves much to be desired. In the end upon walking out I have to say that I just didn't feel much of anything. It was certainly wasted time but done so in a way that the proceedings felt surreal and so confusing without even a zest of passion that it was almost as I spent the time looking at a blank wall and imagining what could be. My advice stare at a blank wall it will be so much more satisfying.  **.5/5