41
Metascore
29 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversSome people find this twisty and twisted psychological thriller arty and pretentious. I find it arty and provocative.
- 67Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean AxmakerSeattle Post-IntelligencerSean AxmakerYet for a film so affectingly steeped in loss, resignation and the ghosts of memory, the revelation that pulls it all together, while satisfying and even touching, lacks emotional resonance.
- 63Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonDespite the actors, the visuals and Forster's directorial swagger, the movie lacks impact.
- 50Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEventually I gave up on meaning and began instead to study the profuse imagery -- and also the flat characters and anchorless performances.
- 40The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinIt's become a tired cliché for characters in "serious" science-fiction movies not to realize they're dead or dying, but Stay as a film doesn't seem to realize that it's dead from the outset, an unconvincing automaton grimly going through the motions.
- 40VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyAn ultra-arty "The Sixth Sense" that deliberately inhibits comprehension of the story until the very end -- and arguably continues to inhibit it even then -- pic features certifiably talented people on both sides of the camera collaborating on a project that probably shouldn't have been undertaken in the first place.
- 40Los Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoLos Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoThe final twist does more to unravel what's come before than to tie it all together, making what's come before feel like a cosmopolitan goose chase.
- 30L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasA steaming compost heap of high-art pretense and half-cocked psychoanalysis that almost makes you sorry Nicolas Roeg isn't making pictures anymore.
- 30Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonThat mind-bending, mystical business was better handled in such films as 1990's "Jacob's Ladder."
- 30The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisMarc Forster takes a maximalist approach to this mumbo jumbo, which means that in addition to lots of wacky angles, shiny surfaces, seemingly endless stairs, and sets of twins, triplets and quadruplets, he deploys the unsettling vision of three talented actors - Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling - straining credulity and neck tendons in the service of serious claptrap.