Better “Stay” away from this film

One and one-half out of four stars (Rated R for profanity and disturbing images) Running time: 98 minutes.

The late 1950’s New York cop show “The Naked City” always closed each episode with the same line: “There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them.”

At least the stories were interesting.

Unfortunately that tag line does not apply to “Stay,” the New York-based psychological thriller that opened this past Friday at area theaters.

Audience members probably fluttered their eyes in disbelief at this convoluted tale in need of a better script and some lead characters that anyone gives a hoot about.

Directed by Marc Forster (“Monster’s Ball” and “Finding Neverland”) the only thing interesting the film has going for it is the use of some bizarre camera tricks, like characters interchanging with each other, countless flickering lights, and winding staircases that rival Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.”

Ewan McGregor plays New York psychiatrist Dr. Sam Foster, an odd fellow with a fancy haircut matched by trousers cut several inches above the shoe (think of Jethro Bodine). Even less convincing is the Scottish-born actor’s attempt at a Bronx accent.

Sam lives with his former suicidal patient Lila (Naomi Watts), an artist who flashes the scars on her wrist but on one occasion calls her boyfriend by the wrong name. And why not, considering his rather lame attempts at romance: ”Let me make a call and then we can take a bath together.”

Sam inexplicably becomes concerned to the point of obsession over a new patient named Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling), a 20 year-old art student at a local university. We see Henry in the opening scene, walking away from a fiery car crash on the Brooklyn Bridge. Just how bizarre is the morose Henry? For starters, when he lights up a cigarette on the subway and is told by an angry rider to put it out, he extinguishes the cigarette on his open arm.

When Henry blurts out that he plans to kill himself in three days, Sam tries to stop it. The shrink investigates Henry’s background, finding out about his patient’s deceased parents and his girlfriend. The deeper Sam digs, the more his life seems to converge with that of the patient.

First Sam goes to Henry’s boyhood home and talks with the mother (Kate Burton). She proves to be the rather ungracious hostess, especially when blood begins to pour out of the side of her head. To boot, the doc is viciously bitten on the arm by Olive the family dog. Then we find out that Mrs. Letham died a few months earlier while Olive went to doggie heaven nine years ago.

It gets worse. Bob Hoskins plays the blind Dr. Leon Patterson, Sam’s own shrink and chess playing buddy. When Henry shows up while the two are in the middle of a game, he violently overturns the chessboard and tells Sam, “That’s my father. You think I don’t recognize my own father?”

At this point, nobody left in the audience really cares. Even an exasperated Sam tells Lila, “I’m seeing things that don’t make sense. Nothing makes any sense!”

You got that right, doc.

Gary Brown is host of the Montgomery College Film Series. For information call (936) 273-7324 or email garyb@nhmccd.edu.