“Don’t disturb the family” is the ever so eerie, yet extremely fitting tagline for Chan-wook Park’s thriller released earlier this year. Written by Wentworth Miller, yes the dude from Prison Break, the film Stoker tells the story of the odd members of the Stoker family. The film opens to a young introverted India (Mia Wasikowska) and her mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) attending the funeral of the late Richard Stoker, who serves as father and husband to these women, respectively. Charles Stoker (Matthew Goode), estranged brother to Richard, shows up at his funeral to India’s confusion and Evelyn’s delight. Up until that day India never even knew he existed, and now Charles had come to stay with her and her grieving mother. As time passes events begin to occur that are out of the ordinary and the audience follows India through her day to day life as she witnesses and tries to piece together these odd occurrences.

This film, in my opinion, is a great one not only because of its intriguing plotline, but  because it has a phenomenal cast; and not  to mention the Indian Paintbrush Production Company is involved and honestly, I really feel they know how to spot a good film. So far I love every film they’ve been involved with. Going back to the cast, Kidman and Wasikowska do such a fantastic job of portraying characters with such opposite personalities. India is a very quiet and withdrawn girl and these characteristics tend to make Evelyn a very dismissive mother. While Kidman’s character is very social and kind, she is very indifferent towards her daughter as she almost doesn’t want to deal with a child who is so different from others. The arrival of the equally friendly yet mysterious Charles Stoker only serves to heighten the tension between mother and daughter.

This thriller is highly recommended from me to you, so please go rent it from amazon or hulu, or look for it on Netflix (or you can even be like me and physically go into a movie store…I know who does that anymore?) because I can guarantee it will be time well spent.