A Cure for Wellness stars Dane DeHaan as Lockhart; a young, ambitious executive for an investment firm. When the CEO of the corporation fails to return from the Swiss "wellness spa" he has been staying at, Lockhart is sent to bring him back. Due to unfortunate circumstances, Lockhart himself is involuntarily checked into the spa, where he begins to undergo "treatment". It isn't long before he realizes all is not right, and begins his own investigation into the spa's past, and into what exactly the "cure" is.
DeHaan has finally found another vehicle to show off his superb acting talents. His Lockhart is essentially a yuppie type, somewhat similar to that of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho minus the mental illness. He starts out as an unlikable guy who is ruthless, unfeeling, and motivated by upward mobility. What he experiences throughout the film slowly begins to change his character, and softens him a bit. DeHaan sells his role as an unconventional and almost ineffectual hero just about perfectly. This is easily the best role he has had to date (Yes, even better than his character in Chronicle).
Mia Goth is eerily beautiful as Hanna, a young patient whom Lockhart befriends and may hold the key to everything. She appears sporadically throughout the film until her role is beefed up near the end. DeHaan and Goth play off of each other pretty well, and they share some nice chemistry. Jason Isaacs is very creepy and unsettling as the head of the spa, Dr. Volmer. His wellness spa seems to be focused on using water as a way to help cure what ails people. His intentions are always shady, and he has a definite sinister edge. Celia Imrie is memorable as one of the patients at the spa who has a penchant for crossword puzzles and is interested in the hidden history of the center as well. Lockhart and her form a small friendship throughout the course of the film. Ivo Nandi is also memorable as Enrico, the friendly driver who shows up at odd intervals to assist Lockhart.
For the first third of the film, A Cure for Wellness seems to be a tirade against Capitalism until it slowly morphs into something else completely. It's fun to follow Lockhart as he attempts to solve the mysteries that lie at the core of the wellness spa (in this respect, the film almost feels similar to Shutter Island). A Cure for Wellness could be classified as part noir, part thriller and part horror film (art house horror to be exact). A lot of disturbing things go down in the film, and it can get surprisingly brutal at times. Lockhart is really put through the wringer in increasingly nasty ways.
Directed by Gore Verbinski and shot by Bojan Bazelli (both of whom brought us The Ring), it should come as no surprise that A Cure for Wellness feels like The Ring in many different ways. It's an eerie, unsettling and thoroughly creepy flick. The atmosphere is rich and seeping with tension and the cinematography is consistently haunting and gorgeous. Just about every frame is a work of art. The story and the twisting path it takes us on is very satisfying as well.
I will admit that this film is fairly lengthy. A Cure For Wellness runs at two hours and thirty minutes. It's a slow, thoughtful film. This never bothered me as I enjoyed getting lost in the gorgeous, intricate world built here. That said, I can easily see how some may deem the film just too darn long. It is definitely very ambitious and self-indulgent, but the third act does provide a satisfying (and bonkers) pay off. An accurate one word summary of the film would be "Grand".
A Cure for Wellness is a different kind of horror film. It's drenched in atmosphere, filled with a thick tension, and manages to be surprisingly brutal and disturbing at times. It is undoubtedly one of the more bizarre, disturbing, ambitious, ballsy, unique and beautifully realized studio horror films to come out in the modern day (The fact that a film like this can still be made in the studio system today almost gives one hope). It's certainly not made for mass audiences, but I think it will find it's crowd given time. A Cure For Wellness is a memorable film that will haunt your thoughts long after the end credits have rolled.
5 STARS
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