Movie Review: A Cure For Wellness

My original plan for the weekend was to see United Kingdom, but it's not playing by me yet.  When we first saw the preview for A Cure For Wellness I was not impressed.  Then I saw another one and thought okay, maybe if nothing else is out that weekend.  SirP called today and saw the movie last night and said he really enjoyed the thriller/suspense.  My first instincts were right.
The premise behind A Cure For Wellness is many people are burnt out achieving their

success and a Wellness Center in the Swiss Alps has The Cure they're looking for.  When a CEO doesn't return after his 2 week vacation the Board sends a young executive to bring him back.  Upon his arrival we learn a bit of the back story of the sanatorium and how 200 years ago the surrounding village burnt the castle to the ground; they aren't much fonder of the rebuilt castle either.  Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) arrives, demanding to see his boss Pembrooke (Harry Groener). Visiting hours are over but they'll allow him to  he can return at 7pm.  While on his way back to town he's involved in a serious car accident and wakes up 3 days later as a patient with a broken leg.  The most important thing to his recovery is to drink plenty of water.... The movie was 2 1/2 hours long, 45 minutes way too long, that's my first complaint.  Secondly there was no point in which you felt engaged with any of the characters.  The only character that uses a first name was the strange youngish female Hannah, even Lockhart and Pembroke aren't called by their given names.  That choice to not humanize Pembroke made it easy to not connect with him. Even at the roughest scenes, and there were some weird ones, while they weren't easy to watch they didn't evoke a sense of empathy.  If you don't care if a character dies that's not a good sign, especially if it is the lead.  I could go on but really there's no need.  The setting was the only positive aspect of the whole movie, how could the Swiss Alps not be beautiful? There are too many other movies out there to spend your money on especially if you need to finish watching all that were nominated for Oscars  My score 1/5 Crowns Today's Trailers: The Belko Experiment (New) This Purge meets Office Space ~Not for me Pirates: Dead Men Tell No Tales (#5) Action/Comedy ~ probably we've enjoyed the others  Ghost in the Shell Sci-Fi ~hoping for screening tickets, don't want to pay to see this  T2 Train Spotting (New) Drama/Comedy Didn't see the first, but I'm to go as this looks interesting  Snatched  (New) Comedy version of Taken with Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer Get Out  Modern twist on Stepford Wives? ~ looks so creepy  Screening this February 20 Going in Style  Comedy  Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine & Alan Arkin rob a bank Logan Superhero ~ Not a big Wolverine fan