Stay takes place in the kaleidoscope of one man’s mind — an alternate world where the ghosts of the dead blend with the shells of the living and where nothing is as it seems.

We follow a New York psychiatrist, Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor), on his strange journey through this alternate universe of the psyche’s purgatory after he meets Henry Lethem (Ryan Gosling), a highly disturbed young painter who plans on taking his own life on the eve of his 21st birthday.

Sam’s life is complicated — he’s inherited patients from a fellow psychiatrist (Janine Garafalo) who’s had a mental breakdown of her own; he’s contending with his former patient and girlfriend (Naomi Watts) who, like Henry, is also a suicidal artist; and he sees dead people. As the hold on his own mind spirals out of control, we watch Sam’s world disintegrate in a surreal palette of colors, odd imagery, and inventive segues from one scene to another.

The suspenseful and often chilling Stay is almost like a cinematic version of a Salvadore Dali painting, but director Marc Forster admirably keeps himself from going over the top. Not that that wouldn’t have been fun too, but I like his choices — similar to films like Angel Heart, The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects and Memento, you want to watch Stay again as soon as it’s over so you can see how all the pieces came together. (But I must confess, one clue that gave the game away for me came too early on in the pic — however, when I later talked to someone who is not familiar with the rock group associated with that clue, he told me he wound up being surprised by the climax.)

McGregor is mesmerizing as Sam falls deeper into the rabbit hole, and Gosling’s often wrenching performance is reminiscent of great breakout roles like Edward Norton’s in Primal Fear. Watts, whose acting can be pretty uneven if she doesn’t have a keen director, is spot-on here as the girlfriend who wants to be supportive of Sam, but identifies strongly with Henry. Bob Hoskins, B.D. Wong, and Kate Burton have small but memorable roles.

It’s wonderful to see Forster stretch, grow and change as a director. Rather than cashing in on variations of his Academy Award hit (Best Actress, Best Screenplay) Monster’s Ball, he’s done a touching childhood fable in Finding Neverland, and now what is certainly the best psychological, mind-bending horror movie of the year in Stay (it’s everything The Jacket wanted to be, and wasn’t). Next up he’ll be tackling comedy with Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction, and I’m sure he’ll be putting a distinctive twist on that genre as well.

Whether or not you’re surprised by the ending is neither here nor there — Stay is worth seeing for its powerful performances, excellent direction, and beautiful visuals.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson