Stay

I was impressed with the unraveling of the humanity of each character as they take hold of their own lives and futures. It is rare for each and every character to be so raw, human, combining compassion, passion, fear and experiences without needing to use a gun or knife to express themselves.

The simplest of gestures and emotions help the characters come to life in their human form despite the horrific past. Earlier tonight I saw a movie with no life or feeling (despite good acting (Mortdecai) and this is 180 degrees from that.

Well worth seeing. A commenter said this is not for date night and I feel the opposite. It is what relationships should discuss- life, feelings, and how the past shapes us but does not have to.

Abby (Taylor Schilling) falls for her former professor Dermot Fay (Aiden Quinn) and moves to Ireland with him. The locals do not approve. She gets pregnant and he does not want to keep it. She goes home to Montreal to visit her father (Michael Ironside). Dermot starts drinking, befriends young Sean Meehan, helps a pregnant woman, and gets into a dig. Finally, secrets are revealed.

One never gets to fall in love with this couple. The movie starts and they're just there. When they split up, there is no trauma since the audience never gets invested in their relationship. It becomes two separate stories, two slow moving stories. Quite frankly, I rather follow one or the other. Quinn's half probably has the most meat and could have gone a variety of ways. This is really two movies adding up to less than one.

It was great the see the extent of Taylor Schillings acting abilities; frequently associated with Orange is the New black, the up-and-coming actress proved she has much more to offer.

The story had a great sense of originality, the choice of actors aided with the consistency of the film whilst having great chemistry amongst each other.

I was not anticipating very much as Schilling fans expressed their loyalty exclusively towards the character of Piper Chapman (OITNB) and not towards Schillings vast acting capabilities; however after watching this film, all elements coincided with the natural beauty of the land to create a well written and elegantly directed film.

Throughout this movie, we were never quite sure what was going on. This was annoying at first, until we realized that that seems part of the theme. In the end, even though not all the questions got answered, we were left feeling like all might work out for the best.

The same annoyance came with the way characters were treating each other and barely communicating, yet without the yelling and drama often seen in film today, these characters were able to forge closer bonds with one another.

The movie does move very slowly and we've never been fans of the imagery that gungy language creates, so those were downers. Otherwise, we liked it. And we loved the locations.

The only thing better than watching Taylor's acting, is seeing her act while topless in a bath. Worth seeing.