Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling) survives a car fire on the Brooklyn Bridge. Dr. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) substitutes for Dr. Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo) to treat Henry. Foster's girlfriend is artist Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts). Henry suggests that he may kill himself. Dr. Ren (BD Wong) is willing to commit him before his scheduled suicide. Henry talks about waitress Athena (Elizabeth Reaser) whom he supposedly is going to propose to. There are constant flashbacks to him driving Athena. He claims that Foster's blind colleague Dr. Leon Patterson (Bob Hoskins) is his father.

Director Marc Forster's visual style gives off a cold disturbed feel. The whole surreal effect is a bit slow. It's an interesting idea for a style but it doesn't have the needed tension. One could really dissect all the visual clues but the plot feels aimless. It does explain itself in the end but it feels like a cheat. The reveal isn't profound as much as it wraps up the movie. The style could work if the plot has more of a point and a lot more tension. It could also go the other way towards a pointless darker Kafkaesque nightmare. It does threaten to do that at times but it never gets there. Also the movie should be from Henry's point of view rather than from Sam Foster's. It makes less sense with Foster as the lead or else make Foster in the car crash.

After a car accident on a bridge, the psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) assumes the case of the survivor Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling),who apparently torched and car and promises to commit suicide three days later. Sam decides to investigate deeper what happened with Henry, and feels that he is becoming detached from reality with his findings about the case. He asks his girlfriend Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts) to help himself to stay lucid, while trying to solve the intriguing situation of Henry.

I am a great fan of director Marc Foster, with his dramatic "Everything Put Together" and "Monster's Ball", and the wonderful "Finding Neverland". However, "Stay" is absolutely different from the foregoing movies, being a kind of "Sixth Sense" or "Jacob's Ladder" with a David Lynch style. The screenplay is very intriguing and challenging, with weird situations, and there is a catch in the end with Sam Foster vision when the truth is finally disclosed. The beautiful cinematography gives the sensation of a dream, or nightmare, to the viewer. This compelling film is attractive and deserves to be watched more than once. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Passagem" ("The Passage")

A quite famous song aside, this movie is quite wicked to say the least. It really needs your full concentration. You need to be there for the whole thing. You can't just watch this while doing something else. Although some might say it's the beginning and end that really matter (no pun intended) - if you miss what happens in between, you are missing out on the whole tale! The thing the director tried to tell you - to spin you right round with (I know another song, I thought while in Rome ..).

The actors involved are superb to say the least which makes me wonder how I never saw this before. It totally escaped me until the other day. I struggled with it too - but it was well worth it to say the least. I did have to check online if I was right with what I was thinking, even if I reckon it is quite obvious ... to a certain extent. Really a movie that messes with you and you may understand or empathize ... well hopefully you do! Cheap tricks and all included.