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Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling, Naomi Watts, Bob Hoskins, B.D. Wong, Janeane Garafolo. Drama/Suspense Synopsis: A young substitute psychiatrist is thrust into a surreal life that is a combination of dreams and reality, dealing with the living and the dead, as he attempts to find, understand, and stop a young patient who has told him that he is going to commit suicide at a specific day and time.

Stay is a movie that is hard to describe in depth and hard to critique with any brevity without spoiling it, so I will just keep it simple: this is an outstanding movie that will evoke feelings of looking at a David Lynch movie, only with a slightly more realistic feel. The story begins with psychiatrist (Ewan McGregor) pinch hitting and meeting a troubled, enigmatic patient (Ryan Gosling) who indicates off hand that he is going to commit suicide the next Saturday at midnight. Well, as you might guess, McGregor immediately seeks to try to stop this, not to mention understand why a young, intelligent college student would want to kill himself, and why wait until a specified time in the next few days. We find that the issue of suicide is especially sensitive for the doctor because his girlfriend (Naomi Watts) previously tried to end her own life and was, apparently, saved by McGregor, which served as the beginning of their relationship.

McGregor shares his concerns with his cynical and burned out supervisor (B.D. Wong) who we soon will view as the only completely grounded main character in the film. At one point, MaGregor confronts Gosling (who is, for some reason, still attending his classes leading up to his date with suicide) and learns that both of Gosling's parents are deceased, and that Gosling seems to feel that he is the cause, although the time and manner of their respective deaths are not revealed. This is a key point in the film as we will soon be introduced to both of Gosling parents-well, maybe we are- as MaGregor, in an attempt to track down Gosling, finds his home on Long Island,  a stately place that is completely empty except for a dog and a woman claiming to be Gosling's mother (superbly played by Kate Bunton). Further, McGregor's long time blind chess partner (Bob Hoskins) is identified by a suddenly appearing Gosling as his father.

If you are not already saying to yourself, "what the hell is going on here?", you should also consider one other point, such as the increasing propensity of characters, including his girlfriend, to call McGregor by Gosling's name. There is also the recurring appearance of Gosling's former girlfriend, also supposedly dead, as well as a terrific cameo appearance by Janeane Garafolo, who seems to be sort of a creepy savant in her role.

Listen, you will figure out very quickly that this movie is not the typical chronological story. On the other hand, it is a little more involved than the end-at- the- beginning-begin- in- the-middle flow of a Tarentino movie. (Not to diminish the brilliance of Tarantino). Stay is more of a surreal feel, where you are wondering if what seems to be happening is really happening, or if the characters are really who we, or the main character, perceive them to be. Those of you who were smart enough to figure out the Sixth Sense prior to the ending the first time you saw it will be asking yourself questions regarding the relationship between McGregor and Gosling within minutes of the opening scenes.

Now, before those of you who have not seen the film holler, "You just spoiled it, dufus!!!", hold on a second. Maybe I did, probably I didn't. Because this film ends in a way that allows you to tie up some of the strings and symbolism, but there are many different interpretations and conclusions you can draw. In other words, you will have to think about what this means and see it more than once. Since we all see things a little differently, this means that you will probably have a different take on the film than whoever you watch it with. Which is always a lot of fun if you like to think about things.

Of course, the thing about films like this is that they only work if you are entertained when you are watching it, and you will be. All of the main characters bring their "A" game, and the supporting characters (Bunton, Garofolo, Hoskins, Wong) all energize the mysterious plot in their relatively short time on screen. McGregor is superb, we empathize with him as he tries to find out what is going on with his patient, all the while we suspect that his is descending into his own psychosis. Watts is brilliant, as always, and she is building a portfolio that may make her remembered as the best actress of her generation, if she is not thought of that way already.

 Starring:Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Jack Black, Colin Hanks, Evan Parke, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis. Drama/Fantasy/Remake Synopsis: A struggling movie director with an unique vision takes his cast and crew on a voyage to shoot a movie with no financial backing, instead landing on a mysterious and unknown island where they encounter all manner of wonders, particularly a 25 foot ape who captures the heart of the leading lady and is eventually brought back to New York City.

If someone asked me to name the 10 best young actors/actresses ("young" being a relative term), two names that would be in my top 10 would be Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts, no question, especially for Ms. Watts. Those two are the primary reason I got around to checking out King Kong on DVD, as the classic story (franchise really) of the big ape has never really appealed to me, and I have never gotten around to watching either of the two previous stories of Kong (With Fay Wray in 1933 or Jessica Lange in 1979...I think) 

So, it kind of pains me to say that this film didn't do much for me at all. The acting is good, but you kind of expect that with a cast like this. It's just the story...well, its a little too far out there for me, even as a fantasy, to really care about the characters or to believe the "romance" between actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and the big gorilla.

The film starts out with a pretty good setup/background of some of our main characters. We meet the struggling director (Jack Black) and struggling vaudvillean actress Ann Darrow and we can quickly appreciate their circumstances in Depression era Manhattan. Black is a director with a unique vision and a dearth of scruples who takes after learning that his financial backers are not going to fund his next project, but before they can actually fire him and take back the stock footage that he has already shot.

It seems that he has a vision for a movie to be shot in a faraway, exotic locale, a place that no one knows about (but that he incredibly has a map to) and he just needs to find his leading lady, which he does literally on the street hours before the ship sails.

While on board with this motley crew of actors as well as the actual crew, a budding romance develops between the writer who was actually tricked into coming along, Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody The Jacket) and Ann Darrow. The film actually does a credible job of showing us the chemistry between these two, which makes it even harder to understand the affection that Ann Darrow will later have for this ape.

Also on board the ship, we witness a strong relationship between two of the crew members, but is never explained or developed, ending with the death of one (Evan Parke) at the hands of Kong himself, again raising a question, at least for me, of Ann Darrow's instant affection for an animal that has killed men trying to save her.

Alas, not the only question that I had in the film, which really stretched my suspension of disbelief quotient, such as: where did Jack Black get the map to the island that knows about? How did the blue people manage to survive on an island with giant apes, dinosaurs, and insects without any modern weapons such as guns? Where did the huge jugs of chloroform come from and why did the crew on the ship just happen to have them? How did the crew and actors get Kong on the little boat back to New York? How could the boat support Kong's weight? How does Jamie Bell's character manage to hit all of those huge bugs attacking Adrien Brody's character with a machine gun while his eyes are closed?

I could go on, but you get the point...a little too far fetched for me, even given that you go into a movie like this understanding its fantasy. To me, the fantasy is that, o.k., "if there were really 25 foot apes, it might happen like this..." But, I just couldn't get there with this film.

Brody and Watts do a good job, but it's not enough to save this film from mediocrity. The real standout is Jack Black, who is wonderfully sleazy in his role and his character benefits from having the best of a suspect script.

The best part of the film, of course, is the CGI and special effects. In fact, it almost seems as if the story was put together to compliment the effects, instead of the other way around.

King Kong is, by no means, a bad film, and the youngsters will no doubt appreciate it very much. But, with such a time tested franchise and with such good actors, it should have been a lot better.