3. Harry Lethan - Stay
Remember earlier when I said Half Nelson rescued Gosling from a potentially terrible career? Well, it's movies like this he was rescued from. Somehow, a semi-talented director in Marc Forster managed to ruin a film starring two of the most charismatic actors in Hollywood, Ryan Gosling and Ewan McGregor. Released a couple of years after the success of The Notebook, Stay offered Gosling the opportunity to play with the big boys (and Bob Hoskins,) but it is co-stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts who came out with the few plaudits to be had. So, the plot has Gosling, yet again, playing a mentally unstable youth, this time planning his suicide in three days time. Cue McGregor, the therapist who is making it his goal to save Gosling's Harry from his planed demise. So far so Good Will Hunting sort of, but the film loses its mind very quickly, twisting with reality and plotting dreamscape journeys that it's very difficult to get on board with as an audience member, and the head-scratching just distracts from the very capable cast. Gosling is pretty much lost in the film, despite being a key element in the plot, because the film is shot so pretentiously that it's difficult not to actually want his character to just slip off an commit suicide quietly in a corner somewhere and be done with it. Not something I ever thought I's say about a Ryan Gosling character.