Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1 (more)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1 Hindi: Dolby Digital 5.1 Urdu: Dolby Digital 5.1 Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1 Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1 Turkish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (less)
A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray delivers truly amazing video and audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company's CEO from an idyllic but mysterious "wellness center" at a remote location in the Swiss Alps. He soon suspects that the spa's miraculous treatments are not what they seem. When he begins to unravel its terrifying secrets, his sanity is tested, as he finds himself diagnosed with the same curious illness that keeps all the guests here longing for the cure.
For more about A Cure for Wellness and the A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray release, see A Cure for Wellness Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on June 7, 2017 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.0 out of 5.
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 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 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.
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.
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Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertaiment has sent us the final details for its upcoming Blu-ray release of visionary director Gore Verbinski's latest film A Cure for Wellness (2017), starring Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth, Celia Imrie, and Ivo Nandi. The release ...
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertaiment will release on Blu-ray visionary director Gore Verbinski's latest film A Cure for Wellness (2017), starring Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth, Celia Imrie, and Ivo Nandi. The release will be available for purchase on June ...
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