A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray Movie Review

Water, water, everywhere. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 7, 2017

Considering the fact that one of the main reveals in Gore Verbinski’s The Ring had to do with a hidden well, one might cheekily assume that the title of Verbinski’s latest scare-a-thon, A Cure for Wellness, has a subtextual meaning. As it turns out, A Cure for Wellness also traffics pretty regularly in water, once again seen as both a healing liquid but also the conduit through which evil is delivered into this world. A Cure for Wellness is considerably more labyrinthine than even the wending tale The Ring told, and it’s in that complexity that some of its story’s momentum is arguably dissipated. Verbinski’s almost always sure visual sense is completely intact in the film, however, and those who don’t mind what is probably an overlong and way over convoluted presentation may find sufficient chills and thrills to make staying at the “rest cure spa” that’s at the center of this story a worthwhile activity.

Much as with some elements in The Ring, there’s a dialectic set up between a modern urban environment and something more atavistic that seems sinister for some unknown reason. When some corporate intrigue at a large New York company ensnares an employee named Lockhart (Dane DeHaan), Lockhart himself sees the chaos as his ticket toward career success. Part of Lockhart’s exciting new duties includes traveling to an isolated spa in the Swiss Alps, where the company’s chief executive officer, a guy named Roland Pembroke (Harry Groener) has been staying. Lockhart is tasked by the company’s board of directors with first locating Pembroke and (perhaps more importantly) then gaining Pembroke’s aid in completing a desperately needed merger. There’s some subterfuge in all of this which is at least hinted at, but which doesn’t seem to overly concern Lockhart, whom the board suggests is not exactly above reproach (or beyond the reach of law enforcement) himself for some of his duplicitous on the job activities. That said, Pembroke's apparent mental breakdown at the spa provides an easy scapegoat for any corporate malfeasance, and Lockhart is therefore excited to travel as well as to achieve a goal which will certainly catapult him into the upper echelons of the executive ranks.

The spa turns out to be a perhaps predictably baroque affair, one where big kahuna Dr. Volmer (Jason Isaacs) specializes in (yep, you guessed it) water treatments for a clientele who are probably only too aware of their impending mortality and who might yearn for a quasi-baptism inaugurating them into a “new life”. The entire facility is almost instantly suspicious seeming, both to Lockhart and (by inference) the audience itself, a not so subliminal feeling that is only exacerbated by the staff’s seeming reluctance to let Lockhart get anywhere near Pembroke. When a devastating (and really disturbingly staged) car accident leaves Lockhart with a broken leg, returned to the spa and put under the care of Dr. Volmer, the creepiness factor is instantly increased, especially once Lockhart himself seems to be experiencing the same kind of delusional paranoia that has evidently subsumed Pembroke.

There are a number of interesting referents, whether intentional or not, running through A Cure for Wellness, including a kind of weird Lost Horizon ambience in terms of both the sequestered location as well as the enduring survival of certain inhabitants. Verbinski’s pace is glacial at times, recalling another ostensibly slow moving horror opus, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, a film which also shares A Cure for Wellness’ post- modern take on a basic haunted house premise. Unfortunately for A Cure for Wellness, though, there isn't the same emotional hook the Kubrick film offered courtesy of a distraught mother and an adorable little boy. Instead, there's the almost Jonathan Harker-esque (Dracula) character of Lockhart slowly being subsumed by an evil in a secluded location which he initially at least wasn't even aware existed, at least not in the form it's ultimately revealed to be. Other cinematic referents, whether intentional or not, include some dental care that seems reminiscent of Marathon Man , as well as a scene concerning menstruation which almost unavoidably evokes a similar moment in Carrie.

A Cure for Wellness is virtually stuffed to its gills (do eels, one of the recurring motifs of the film, have gills?) with plot points, and Justin Haythe’s screenplay arguably could have been shorn of both some sidebar material as well as at least some of the film’s pretty lengthy (well over two hours) running time. But tucked into various nooks and crannies of the film are some intriguing elements and performances, including Celia Imrie as one of the aged residents who serves as a kind of analog to the Hutch character in Rosemary's Baby. Also fascinating in a truly bizarre way is Mia Goth (a perfect surname for this enterprise) as Hannah, the only young person at the spa and one who has a none too surprising connection to Volmer.

The real star of the show, though, is Verbinski, whose askew framings and attention to detail in terms of production design and overall ambience is as acute as ever. While narratively the film tends to lurch and stumble (when it’s not just kind of sitting there, like a patient “meditating”), visually A Cure for Wellness is one of Verbinski’s most audacious efforts, which is saying quite a lot for this often hyperbolic stylist. Things may ultimately not make a lot of sense, but there’s always something to see, meaning, like is often repeated about the residents at the spa, you may actually not want to leave.

A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Cure for Wellness is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Even the 20th Century Fox logo is graded a sickly green in this often interestingly skewed visual presentation, a grading that continues through to an almost miasmatic view of New York skyscrapers (see screenshot 6). Other long sequences are tipped more toward ice cold blues and grays, while several of the outdoor scenes at the spa have much more naturalistic palette, with bright primaries and a host of interstitial hues vividly saturated and almost dreamlike. Verbinski and DP Bojan Bazelli play with all sorts of perspectives throughout the film, often framing things unusually, something that tends to keep the viewer subliminally off kilter. Detail levels are routinely exceptional, especially in the many close-ups, though some of the grading choices arguably deplete fine detail levels minimally. Several long dark sequences in an underground lair offer decent shadow detail, and even some of the underwater moments have surprising amounts of detail, albeit understandably not at the levels seen "up top". The film has an impeccable production design, with the spa coming off kind of like the horror movie equivalent of the lodge at the center of The Grand Budapest Hotel, and textures on things like fabrics and costumes are routinely precise looking.

A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Cure for Wellness features a nicely immersive (no pun intended, given the prevalence of underwater moments in the film) DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 that is considerably more subtly rendered than a lot of horror films, but which is perhaps just as effective in spite of the absence of traditional things like blasts of LFE to produce startle effects. There are occasional cacophonous moments, as in the devastating car crash early in the film, but a lot of the surround activity comes courtesy of well done ambient environmental sounds in outside sequences, while maybe a bit ironically also commendably detailing some of the echo prone interior spaces of the spa. Benjamin Wallfisch provides an evocative score which ably underpins several sequences and which spreads through the surround channels winningly. Dialogue is always presented cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Sequence - "It's Wonderful Here" (1080p; 4:46)


• Meditations feature a trio of pretty cheeky pieces with gorgeously weird imagery and supposedly calming narration:

  Water is the Cure (1080p; 2:58)

  Air is the Cure (1080p; 2:44)

  Earth is the Cure (1080p; 2:42)

• The Score (1080p; 4:08) profiles composer Benjamin Wallfisch and the recording at Abbey Road.


• Trailers (1080p; 5:20)

A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I am an admitted (and frankly kind of unapologetic) lover of bright, shiny things, especially when they're delivered with the visual flair Verbinski brings to A Cure for Wellness, so my tolerance for the film's manifest shortcomings might be higher than some other viewers'. The story has elements of real interest, but this is one overstuffed piece that could have used all kinds of judicious pruning. Technical merits are first rate, and with caveats duly noted, A Cure for Wellness comes Recommended.