Let me be perfectly honest…
There were several moments during this overlong – 146 minute – movie where I was ready to bolt, but didn’t.
The reasons I stayed?
No. 1:
It’s from director Gore Verbinski who had previously served-up three PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN adventures—THE RING and 2013’s THE LONE RANGER with Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp.
So there HAD to be more to this than what was playing out in front of me.
No. 2:
Curiosity got the best of me. Surely things were heading towards a crucial climax.
And did it ever!
No. 3:
Critics can never leave a screening they are reviewing no matter how badly they want to. It’s an unwritten law.
A CURE FOR WELLNESS starts out innocently enough with Dane DeHaan as a young financial wiz at a Wall Street firm sent to Switzerland to retrieve the company’s removed chairman whose signature is needed to complete a corporate merger.
So far. So good……
The former executive has immersed himself there in a most unusual and mysterious wellness center—a high ticket spa – whose wealthy clients are convinced they’ve never felt better and are committed to staying forever.
But what of those strange treatments AT this Gothic castle? Not to mention its dark history which engulfs DeHaan as well.
Now crank the weirdness level to an 11…
…as the terrifying payoff finally unravels—which some in our screening audience claimed to have had already figured.
Me?
Being dense I totally DIDN’T see it coming.
Gore Verbinski’s psychological, supernatural horror thriller A CURE FOR WELLNESS.
Consider yourselves forewarned!
My grade: a demented C+
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings during Kansas City’s Morning News on 98.1 FM, KMBZ.
Why just a C+?
It needed to be tightened up. Had it been edited down to say 105 minutes I would’ve been much more receptive to the film.
that guy in the photo co-starred in a Netflix series, “The OA”, which was pretty weird as well. I won’t spoil the surprise for those who might watch it, but the guy plays a former doctor who’s researching near death experiences.
Another confirmation as to why I rarely go to the movies.