Stoker

Fans of acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) will be happy to note that his ability to craft beautifully haunting imagery has translated to his English-language debut. But for all of its aesthetic pleasures, Stoker doesn’t have much substance beneath the style.

It’s both a dark thriller and twisted domestic melodrama that is nevertheless pretentious and frustrating by its emotional distance.

Set in a posh family estate outside a small town, the film follows India (Mia Wasikowska), a teenager who is mourning the death of her father (Dermot Mulroney) in a traffic accident. India becomes aloof, rebelling against her despondent mother, Evelyn (Nicole Kidman), but finds herself intrigued by the sudden arrival of Charlie (Matthew Goode), an uncle who she never knew existed.

As Charlie slowly drives a wedge into the delicate family dynamics – especially between Evelyn and her abrasive mother (Jacki Weaver) – India begins to suspect he has ulterior motives.

Stoker is atmospheric and deliberately paced, characteristics that might be either virtues or drawbacks, depending upon what individual moviegoers are seeking. It’s not an assembly-line Hollywood horror picture, for sure.

Park is adept at selecting complementary sights and sounds to enhance the mood of specific scenes, something he does again here, while working with familiar genre themes. The film is punctuated throughout with violent outbursts that he renders both shocking and poetic.

The film marks the screenwriting debut of actor Wentworth Miller (TV’s “Prison Break”), who tries to craft a quietly powerful character study that builds to something more sinister. However, the characters lack sympathy and the critical payoff is less than satisfying.

One highlight is the nicely understated performance of Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), who showcases her versatility as a character who is guilt-ridden and withdrawn, forcing her to act mostly using body language and facial expressions.

Like her dialogue, her emotions remain muted for much of the film before eventually bubbling to the surface in the final act, when the tragedy peels away layers of extreme family dysfunction.

Stoker is mysterious and even darkly humorous, and feels influenced by some of the lesser works of Alfred Hitchcock or even David Lynch. Yet by the end, it feels like an empty exercise in creepy perversity that’s more confusing than coherent.

Rated R, 98 minutes.