By Mac Spain
A Cure for Wellness is brought to us by visionary director Gore Verbinski who’s most well-known for his work on the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, unfortunately, his last film The Lone Ranger was panned by critics and audiences alike, so you’d think that this time around he’d be playing it safe. However, A Cure for Wellness couldn’t be any further from being a safe bet if it tried.
The film stars Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) as an ambitious young executive who is sent to retrieve his company’s CEO from an idyllic, yet mysterious wellness centre. A lethal car accident just outside of the grounds suddenly leads him into becoming a patient himself and he becomes increasingly suspicious that the spa’s treatments are not all what they seem. Doctor Heinrich Volmer played by Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) runs the spa, and I think what makes him such an unsettling presence is that there’s clearly something wrong with him and everything that he stands for, and yet he’s so well-mannered and reassuring that you do end up feeling tempted just to leave all your doubts at the door and take everything he says at face value, I mean he’s a doctor right??
A Cure for Wellness is brought to us by visionary director Gore Verbinksi and a visionary he is indeed! The film’s mostly shot around the Swiss Alps and it verges on being frame for frame perfection. One shot in particular that actually featured in the trailer had the camera hanging onto the side of a train with the Swiss Alps looking absolutely gorgeous in the background. Eventually the train enters a tunnel and we’re plummeted into darkness, I mean it’s just such a treat to be in the hands of a director who clearly knows what he’s doing behind the camera. There’s so much more to directing than just setting down your tripod and clicking record, after all a single image can say a thousand words!
The use of sound is also incredibly well utilised throughout the course of the movie. There’s a number of scenes where DeHaan’s character is exploring the wellness centre after his accident and he’s walking around on these crutches. The constant back and forth motion lets out a sinister creaking sound each time that just seems to echo through the corridors and create this whole atmosphere of dread. You genuinely want to know what awaits him around the next corner and just what exactly is going on here. A Cure for Wellness has itself a mean run time though of 146 minutes, so as you can probably guess it does take a long time for you to get any answers, which I think will frustrate some viewers who aren’t quite so patient.
As the film begun to reach its climax I could feel myself getting rather worried that it was just going to be a carbon copy of 2010’s Shutter Island, thankfully the last twenty minutes or so took it down a completely different path. Just imagine some of the iconic insane asylum films we’ve had such as Girl Interrupted and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, turn it up to eleven and you’ll have Gore Verbinski’s A Cure for Wellness. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can totally understand why other people aren’t quite so keen and on a side note I wouldn’t recommend seeing this film if you’re squeamish when it comes to teeth. I know that might seem like an odd comment to make, but seriously you’re gonna have teeth falling out, teeth being drilled into, it really is lovely stuff!
A Cure for Wellness picks up an ICM Film rating of 8/10.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, have a look at the trailer here >
