STOKER

If Chan-wook Park had directed "Shadow of a Doubt" instead of Hitchcock or it had been written by Truman Capote during his "Other Voices, Other Rooms" phase then if might have turned out something like "Stoker", a deliriously over-the-top eye-popper of a chiller in which Uncle Charley comes to stay with intentions towards niece India that are probably less than wholesome. This is Park's English language debut and while not as initially gruesome as some of the movies that made him famous, there's still plenty here to make you squirm; I, for one, was wriggling in my seat in blissful satisfaction.

Charley is Matthew Goode and very good he is, too. India is Mia Wasikowska whose dark eyes and vacant stare is enough to convince you that she may be more than a match for Uncle Charley should his lascivious charm get out of hand. Mom is Nicole Kidman, a mite too fond of the booze and her dead husband's younger brother and perhaps not fond enough of her daughter. (Kidman is fast becoming the character actress of choice for this kind of sleazy, noirish thriller). The stunning cinematography is by Chung-hoon Chung; you would need to go back to Minnelli or Sirk to find a director who uses colour as imaginatively as Park does here. To say too much about the plot would be to reveal too many of the film's many pleasures. Just race to see this one for yourself.