WTF
You will see where this movie is going, and it will still baffle you
Original
A Cure for Wellness might be one of the most original horror movies in the past 30years
Slow Burn
This film takes it sweet time unfolding its layers
Cinematography
Erotically shot with a composition of long shots, close ups and dutch angle shots
Rotten Tomatoes 40% Cinemascore: C+
I really kinda liked A Cure for Wellness, the original asylum horror picture brings so much fresh material forgotten to the table that its becomes really easy to forgive how blatantly offensive its climax is. This movie is not what I suspected on first recommendation, its not so much a body horror extravaganza as it is a truly disturbing and downright psychotic exploration of the most despicable facets of human nature...its actually kind of beautiful in its sick twisted way. That being said this movie falls on its own sword toward the end, and in the midst of all the lunacy that overtakes this movies slow burn it fails to address many of the potholes it opened along the way. As a profound means of testing your own capacity for human ribaldry, this movie is a must, but as an actual story is concerned this movie is a bloody, bloody mess.
A Cure for Wellness follows one man's decent into madness as he investigates a wellness center in the middle of the swiss alps. When Lockhart (DeHaan) is blackmailed into finding his business superior, Pembroke (Groener), by the board of his own company, he learns Pembroke has been has been attending a short of rehabilitation center in Switzerland with a history as polarizing as its oddly content cliental. Lockhart finds his superior, but Pembroke refuses to leave; to make matter worst a horrific accident makes Lockhart immobile. Injured with a broken leg, Dr. Volmer (Isaacs), the head of the facility, convinces Lockhart to try the treatment to which he agree only to discover whats really going on under the surface of the mysterious wellness center.
As I alluded in the accolades above, this movie is exceptionally shot and very well acted. There is a promising aura to the whole picture, begging for the audience to be patient as its mysteries are shrouded in fog. The score too is also exceptional in areas, adding to the gothic myth of the wellness center. Unfortunately, once you look beyond the movies stylistic edge thats where the holes become more obvious. Many of the promises the movie makes as it gives subtle hints to the audience are forgotten in the third act. Much of the movie would have you believe that our pov character, Lockhart, is in a dreamlike state, allowing the audience to forgive many of the blaring potholes but even that aspect to this film is forgotten toward the conclusion. In addition to the lack of pay off, the central mystery that binds the narrative together isn's so hard to deduce as the movie not so subtly winks at whats really going on. If you didn't get the message "the water is bad" after the first close up on the glass, don't worry, there are another 25 shots that do exactly that (don't worry there is more to the mystery than that).
The long and the short of it is that while I enjoyed A Cure for Wellness, and deeply appreciate what it brings to the table as a modern gothic horror story, it just has too many glaring flaws for me to recomend it to other people. As I write this review, I consider maybe this was the point of the film, and the contrast between the audience and its own diegesis is the exclamation for its dream like phenomenon, but then I remember this contrast is dropped halfway through, and the thematic elements of the dream are drawn to another plot thread down the line. A Cure for Wellness certainly has its ups, but it stumbles on its own logic far too much.
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