What The Reviews Have To Say About 'A Cure For Wellness'
Gore Verbinski's A Cure For Wellness, a horror flick involving a young Wall Streeter and a spooky spa in the Alps, is out in theaters this week. Are we getting the Gore Verbinski that made 2002's excellent Ringu remake... or the Verbinski who went on to do three Pirates of the Caribbean movies and 2013 flop The Lone Ranger? Here's what the reviews have to say.
'A Cure For Wellness' Draws On 'Frankenstein'-Era Classic Horror
Visually ripe and located just around the bend from melodrama, A Cure for Wellness is a cousin to Guillermo del Toro's recent Crimson Peak, another thriller nostalgic for the deep-pocketed lushness purveyed by '30s-era horror-branded studios like Universal, the makers of Dracula and Frankenstein.
[TimeOut]
The spa is pure Universal Horror, a foreboding castle overlooking backward villagers in Mitteleuropa. There's no shortage of Kafka, either, especially as Lockhart faces unhelpful bureaucracy the minute he makes his arrival.
Early on, we're told that the villagers don't get along with "the people on the hill," establishing the sort of uneasy tension that once led an angry mob to storm Frankenstein's castle — and indeed, Dr. Volmer is dabbling in similarly against-nature experiments of his own, which will be revealed in due time.
[Variety]
There's Some Mileage In Its Commentary On Obsessing Over 'Being Well'
While three decades on, gym culture is still a dominant force, it's been joined by a rather smug obsession with wellness, a somewhat vague term encompassing a mixture of healthy living, spiritual oneness and spa treatments. There's something undeniably creepy and cultish about the industry its spawned, the promise of peace and well-being without a solid idea of how you'll be getting there. It turns out, if this rather loopy new thriller is to be believed, it requires some nasty eels, Jason Isaacs and a lot of water.
At first, Justin Haythe's screenplay feigns an interest in the idea that Americans are literally working themselves to death and willing to pervert reality in order to avoid confronting that truth. We know we're sick, the film seems to argue, but we're in denial of the diagnosis. As Lockhart begins to explore his new environs — gawping at the institute's glassy-eyed guests (zombified titans of industry), receiving plenty of personal attention from Dr. Volmer himself (Jason Isaacs, slippery as ever), and flirting with Hannah ("Nymphomaniac" standout Mia Goth), the pale young woman who's spent her entire life at the spa resort — every scrap of stylish portent helps feed the queasy feeling that people would rather invent an illness for themselves than find a cure for the deepest parts of their condition.
Verbinski And Bojan Bazelli Have Made A Gorgeous, Hyperstylized Horror Film
Working with his longtime cinematographer Bojan Bazelli, Verbinski has conjured up a film where almost every frame could end up on One Perfect Shot to be studied and scrutinized[…] Production designer Eve Stewart further improves it with her detailed work, which gives the film a World War II-meets-steampunk vibe full of old-school medical equipment and vast sensory-deprivation chambers.
Verbinski is an unflinching visual storyteller (just compare The Ring to an amateur effort like Rings), and A Cure For Wellness is quite the scenic spectacle. A winding driveway leads into an inspiring complex, thatched with wooden details and decorated with upper-crust appeal. When Lockhart passes through Volmer's humongous iron gates, we're awestruck by structural grandeur. A cavernous lair lets Verbinski's production team play around with archaic technology and renaissance style, while "experimentation" rooms chill with cold isolation.
Depending On Who You Ask, It's Either 'Too Long' Or 'Way, Way Too Long'
Viewers unprepared for how long A Cure for Wellness runs will be glancing at their watches or phones in disbelief that after 90 minutes, then 120, an ending has yet to come into sight.
By the end of the seemingly interminable 146 minutes of "A Cure for Wellness," audiences will have already guessed the story's ultimate twists, although by that point it's quite likely they will have long since ceased to care either way.
[The Wrap]
The movie deprives us of either a tragic villain or a sympathetic lead, hoping that its grab bag of squirm-inducing details — dental drills, stillborn livestock, flesh-eating eels — will suffice, when in fact, they reveal how a shorter, tighter treatment ought to have done the trick.
[Variety]
TL;DR
A Cure for Wellness could have been a horror classic. Instead, it suffers from trying to do too much and teasing out mysteries that become distractions.
[Collider]
Watch The Trailer
Not interested in a horror movie this week? Check out our review roundups for The Great Wall and John Wick: Chapter 2.
