A Cure For Wellness

This review may contain spoilers!

If you're a conspiracy theorist you'll love this; the entire plot is basically that there's something in the water! I would give A Cure For Wellness a 6.5/10.

There's a really fascinating folk tale that's linked to the history of the spa and village in this film, it was interesting because it created a historical mystery that evolved as the film went along and that you wanted to solve yourself. The link between the dark history of the spa and some of the main characters was very twisted but created a great Gothic plotline by the end of the feature. The Baron's immortal drive to keep his bloodline pure by sleeping with his own daughter and the horrific experiments he engages in to keep their immortality create a completely eerie, unique and hostile setting throughout the film. The cinematography is a real feat; the film itself is so rich and deep with colour at first and as the film goes along it experiments with drawing out the colour from scenes or creating striking visual moments. The editing flows so naturally and makes the pacing move like a dream, this is really no small feat for a two and a half hour long film so the editors can really be commended. The score for the film is great and takes you between eerily ambient sound to horrific frenzied builds in tempo; the light singing scattered throughout this film is beautiful and captures the tragic memories at the heart of this feature.

Dane DeHaan, who played Lockhart, made for a pretty interesting protagonist; DeHaan really submits his role to a range of emotions and experiences be it arrogance, torture, frantic fear, wild rage or indoctrination to name a few. David Bishins, who played Hank Green, really sold the role of corporate executive; Bishins stern and authoritarian mannerisms really just embodied this character completely.

However the best performance came from Jason Isaacs, who played Volmer. We're only three months into 2017 and already Isaacs has been best performer in one of my previous reviews, Red Dog: True Blue. Yet his scene-stealing portrayal this time round is leagues different from his Red Dog role. Isaacs is a very detached, clinical antagonist in this film who brings forth a facade of reason and logic that hides a deeply disturbed interior. The character of Volmer has just so much mystery around his entire person in this film, you struggle to know what exactly is true. Yet when we come to see the relationship between Goth and Isaacs for what it really is the blinders are completely off. Suddenly it's like the restraints are off Isaacs and he can fulfill his darkest wishes upon his on-screen daughter, Goth. Probably most disturbing about all this is how honest Isaacs is in his portrayal and how convinced you are that he loves Goth and seeks her love. It's a twisted part to play and one of Isaacs best yet.

A Cure For Wellness is a film that starts out with heavy discussion around capitalism and living in a world of big business, the first half hour is spent critiquing the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' and the mentality of the upper classes. What's so disappointing about this is that after the first half hour this is a point of the film that is completely dropped, suddenly you are focused upon the mystery at the Wellness spa and what gave this film it's initial depth is gone. This is really jarring and takes some time to adjust to the new frame of story. Furthermore near the end of the film the protagonist becomes indoctrinated y the spa yet still regains his identity and emerges the hero through a very flimsy plot device, I found this decision to be quite convenient and detrimental to the plot.

Mia Goth, who played Hannah, really didn't have much as far as an emotional range went; her moments of terror or joy never felt very genuine because she didn't seem to commit herself fully. Ivo Nandi, who played Enrico, was a bit of a go to exposition character; his role was founded around driving characters to the spa so he just barraged you with information and did little more. Adrian Schiller, who played the Deputy Director, just felt like a carbon copy take on what Isaacs was doing with his role; Schiller often fell into the background and lacked impact as a character. Celia Imrie, who played Victoria Watkins, is a very dry role to watch; Imrie really just leads the plot along from act to act but really doesn't have much in terms of personality. Harry Groener, who played Pembroke, was a role that demanded more than Groener could provide; the character of Pembroke had to act differently at different stages of the film and while Groener was convincing as a business executive he wasn't very convincing in any other capacity. Tomas Norstrom and Ashok Mandanna, who played Frank Hill and Ron Nair respectively, were very much background roles in this feature; the amount of screen time these two got for doing absolutely nothing was ridiculous. Peter Benedict, who played the Constable, was quite a weak antagonist; Benedict really did the bare minimum and presented quite a flat tone in regards to his role. Johannes Krisch, who played the Caretaker, was basically little more than a basic henchman; really he was only in this to act as tough muscle and be intimidating. Rebecca Street, who played Lockhart's Mother, was one of those roles who was wise and prophetic for little other reason than because they were old and dottery; Street gave a performance that was generic and rather dull to watch.