Stoker
(2013) 99 Min.
Rated: R (slight gore, Slight nudity and implied masturbation)
Country: UK/USA
Director: Chan-wook Park
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★★☆
India’s father has just died and his brother, her uncle, is now living in her home.
Synopsis:
A scene plays where a woman (India) walks across a highway street. An internal monologue plays, in part she says
“Just as a flower cannot choose its color, we are not responsible for who we have come to be.”
India Stoker (Wasikowska) loses her father in an accident. Her mother, Evelyn (Kidman), introduces India to her uncle Charlie (Goode). Charlie informs India that he will be staying with them for a bit.
India happens to see Charlie and Mrs. McGarrick arguing.
India is morbidly reading a book on funeral traditions and Evelyn asks India to go shopping with her. She comments on how close India was with her father. They would often go hunting together. She comments on how she and her husband were not always distant. Both look out the window at Charlie sitting on a lawn chair.
Charlie cooks a meal for India and Evelyn and at dinner India is irritated by her mother’s bragging. Charlie offers India ice cream, but she doesn’t want any. India asks why she never heard of Charlie before and her mother tells her that Charlie was traveling the world. Charlie talks about his brother a bit and Evelyn leaves the table a bit troubled. Charlie then offers wine to India. She asks him what he wants from her and he replies “to be friends”. She says that they don’t need to be friends, they’re family.
At school it seems like she’s teased by the boys. She ignores them. India is able to see beyond just the vase in art class, to the very detailed pattern inside of the vase.
As India leaves school she sees her uncle waiting for her outside his car. She opts instead to ride the school bus and Charlie follows alongside. The girls on the bus with India squeal in excitement as he smiles.
Charlie persists in trying to be helpful and almost suffocating. India comes home to find her mother sitting together with Charlie trying to teach him to play the piano.
India’s great aunt, Gwendolyn Stoker, pays the family a visit. She remarks on how Charlie and Evelyn are living together and Evelyn gets defensive. Before she leaves for the night she passes India a note and asks her to call.
Gwendolyn decides to stay at another motel, seemingly out of fear. She tries to call the Stoker house from a telephone booth outside the hotel and it is here that Charlie finds her. He attacks her inside the booth.
India goes down to the basement to get some ice cream and finds a body frozen in the freezer.
At school India’s bullies try to stop her and she stabs one of them in the hand with a pencil. One random guy, named Whip, stops them from bullying her further.
India replays in her mind finding the body of the woman in the freezer. It was Mrs. McGarrick.
India plays the piano and Charlie joins her. As they start to play together Charlie seductively places and arm around her as they play and the tempo increases. India is in a daze when the song suddenly stops and she turns to see that Charlie has already left, leaving her alone at the piano.
The song “Summer Wine” by Nancy Sinatra plays and India goes down to investigate. Evelyn is drinking wine and Charlie is with her. They begin to dance to the song. Evelyn remarks that to her it doesn’t matter who he is. She initiates a kiss and they start to make out. India, seeing this, is horrified and flees.
She goes to a club/restaurant and sees Whip. They go to a park where she initiates a kiss. She bites Whip’s tongue and he bleeds. She says she wants to go home, but Whip argues that she initiated it and he will finish it. She punches him and he punches her in the stomach. Whip is unbuckling his belt when Charlie comes up behind him. He ties up Whip and throws him to the ground. India begins to kick him as revenge.
At home, taking a shower, India replays the images in her mind of what happened. Whip was on top of her, Charlie wrapped a belt around Charlie’s neck and pressed his foot on Whip’s back so hard that Whip’s neck snaps. Charlie then placed Whip’s body in the trunk of the car. India tries to call her Great Aunt’s number but no one picks up the phone.
India is at first crying in the shower, but slowly it’s revealed that she is also touching herself and reaches orgasm thinking about Whip’s neck being snapped.
She goes to see her mother and asks her to brush India’s hair. Instead she brushes her mother’s hair and tells her that she saw what happened in the dining room. Evelyn is in denial and tells India that she will clean out her father’s study room.
India looks in the study and notices a locked door. She opens the drawer with a key she was given from her father before he died. Inside the desk drawer is a gun and a box. Inside the box there are photographs. One has a family and on the back is marked with the names Richard, Charlie and Jonathan. Another photo shows the two sons elder sons (Richard and Charlie) in suits without the younger brother and looking serious a few years later.
In another box India finds letters addressed to her. All of these letters are from Charlie on his travels. At first, India is moved for seemingly she has found a kindred spirit. She then sees that on the back of each letter a stamp that they came from the Crawford Institute is shown.
India confronts Charlie and asks him what happened to Jonathan. Charlie explains that when Jonathan was born Richard spent all his time with Jonathan. This led to Charlie burying Jonathan alive in a sandbox. Charlie was then sent to an institute. He finally was let go after many years. Richard had rented an apartment in New York and intended for Charlie to move there, but Charlie wanted to live with Richard. Charlie took a rock from outside and beat Richard’s face with it. This is how India’s father died.
India asks why he chose to come back at that moment. Charlie replies that the day he left the institute was a special day. It was India’s 18th birthday. He claims that everything he’s done is for her. Charlie pulls out a gift box and inside the box is a pair of high-heels which he slips onto India’s feet.
Outside a sheriff is waiting. India gives him details about seeing Whip on the night of his disappearance. After the sheriff leaves India asks Charlie what they’ll do. He says they’ll really love New York. He’s about to stroke her face when Evelyn spots them. Flustered, she leaves. Charlie tells India that they’ll leave the next day.
Later that evening, Evelyn asks to speak to Charlie. She talks a bit about her suspicions on how Aunt Gwen never returned. Charlie pulls a seductive smile and begins to kiss Evelyn, she kisses him while tears roll down her cheeks. He pushes her on the ground and starts to choke her with his belt. Charlie calls for India to watch him. India comes to him, but with a rifle. She shoots Charlie, killing him.
There are drag marks and Charlie is presumably buried where the other bodies are buried in the garden, under large spherical stones. India takes her bag and places it in Charlie’s car. Evelyn awakes to find herself alone in the house. India is driving along a stretch of highway and the very same sheriff from before stops her. He asks her if she knows how fast she was going. She replies that it was fast enough to get his attention. She then pulls out some gardening shears and stabs the sheriff in his face. He stumbles off into the tall grass and India follows him calmly with her hunting rifle. She sprays the grass with his blood.
Review:
Stoker seems to be a kind of adolescent coming of age tale. It even dips into a fairytale at points with India playing a lonely girl who is very different and who finds someone who is pretty different too. She seems to sway between almost falling for Charlie and on the edge of calling the police.
It’s this duality and blurring of lines that help to keep the movie interesting. Fairly early on we have hints that Charlie probably killed people, but it’s the focus on India who is more keen to notice these details and the actions that she takes which drive the story. She doesn’t just call a sheriff. She’s both violent and passive, but the violent urges persist and permeate her calm demeanor.
The film itself is slow and deliberate. The pacing is never dull and the story is entertaining. Even though the concept is seemingly bizarre and incestuous, it becomes completely believable. At times the symbolism and visuals are almost too forced. In particular a scene where the tv blares out how a young bird kills its sibling for survival as Charlie begins to attack his aunt. It doesn’t take a genius to put the idea together that Charlie is much like the bird. Also, the ending scene with India killing the sheriff while pop music blares on. It felt wrong for the scene, but there it ended.
This is definitely a film worth watching at least once. It’s not at all scary but it definitely has thrilling moments and the character interaction is excellent.