"The Buddhists have it right, this world is only an illusion."

Stay is not a supernatural thriller about a young art student named Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling) who plans to kill himself in three days - at midnight on his 21st birthday. He's not planning on doing it on the Brooklyn Bridge in imitation of his favorite artist. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) is not the psychiatrist who chases him throughout New York running into friends, family and pets long thought dead and gone. And Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts) is not Henry's artistic ex-suicidal patient and girlfriend. None of these things have anything at all to do with this movie; it's everything else that is so important.

Rarely can it be said, that a film is both extremely interesting and extremely dumb. Stay, however, is one of those films. It's dumb because, for no apparent reason, it uses a Sixth Sense style plot device that adds very little value, other than confusion. The twists in the film are obvious, so obvious that you spend the whole time wondering if the writer is misdirecting you or is just stupid. This would be fine; great even, if it were intentional.

It's very interesting because of what's happening, if you can get past trying to figure out the mystery long enough to focus on the plot - and more importantly, what's behind the plot - you will find subtle themes, powerful emotions and fantastic acting. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts both do fine jobs, but nothing particularly spectacular. It's Ryan Gosling's pathos-filled, existential performance that makes the film what it is. Watching him flit from memorable place to memorable place as if silently re-living his life in the few days before 'lights out' is touching and still his detachment from the scenes is somehow too familiar. While at the same time his rage is natural, expected. Perhaps I've already said too much.

This film is the equivalent of sketching a picture by filling in the background with minute detail and leaving the subject blank. In the end, what you have is beautiful and intriguing, and you can see it just as well, if not better than if you had simply drawn the image to begin with. This is one you should probably see although you might walk away a little more introspective than you might have expected.

Stay opens nationwide October 21st

Dave can be reached at dkerr@detroitbuzz.com .