Few directors have established themselves like Sam Raimi (“The Evil Dead,” “Spider-Man (2002)”) has. While he might not be a household name on the same level as Spielberg or Nolan, anyone who knows his name knows exactly what to expect with his movies: cartoony levels of gore and a distinct visual style. While some of those aspects have applied to more of his films than others, his name is nevertheless a stamp of approval on the horror genre, and he’s returned to the director’s chair for that genre for the first time in almost two decades “Send Help.”
Linda Liddle, played by Rachel McAdams (“The Notebook,” “Game Night”), is a socially awkward strategist and survival enthusiast working at a financial management company. Bradley Preston, played by Dylan O'Brien (“Teen Wolf (2011),” “The Maze Runner”), is her newly appointed tech-bro CEO more content to discuss golf trips with his friends than the company. After she convinces him to let her come on a trip to Bangkok to finalize a merger to prove herself, their plane ends up caught in a storm and crashes into the ocean. The pair end up stranded together on a deserted island, with Bradley injured and relying on Linda to survive and provide for them.
Given the film is set on a deserted island, the chemistry and banter between the two leads is the lynchpin of the entire tale. Luckily, McAdams and O’Brien bounce off each other with malicious, squirmy glee. McAdams is a deliciously devious lead, playing Linda as a sweet person at her core, but pushed to the brink given Bradley’s true jerkiness. It’s a role that she’s clearly having a lot of fun with, and that translates into a kind of behavior the actress hasn’t really tapped into since her days as the original Regina George. O’Brien does a fantastic job establishing Bradley as a true jerk, but not without some minor levels of sympathy that allow for a ping-ponging sense of loyalty from the audience. He’s truly so easy to hate, but not to despise, and that allows for the film’s central conceit to flourish. There’s an almost Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd quality to their relationship, played completely straight save for the occasional, literal, winking nod.
Screenwriters Mark Swift (“Baywatch (2017),” “Freddy vs. Jason”) and Damian Shannon (“Baywatch (2017),” “Freddy vs. Jason”) play with the social inequality angle of the employee-employer relationship with just enough spice to avoid things ever getting stale. The material isn’t deep enough to provide any revolutionary social commentary, but rather it establishes these characters enough to let the actors take the reins and run away with them. For all the film’s squishy gore and tense moments, it’s a surprisingly character driven affair that works so well due to McAdams and O’Brien and the depth allowed by the script.
That’s not to say the film is absent of that squishy gore and tense moments; this is a Raimi film after all. He even manages to sneak in a shot of a zombie-esque creature seemingly for no other reason than his own delight. That delight is clear throughout the entire film, as this is a work from a director who loves covering his actors in all manner of dirt, grime, blood, and puke. Raimi keeps everything playful though, making sure the film never feels downtrodden.
Remarkably, it’s about a light as a film about two people that hate each other could be, with a gleeful pulpy sensibility. Frequent Raimi collaborators Bill Pope (“The Matrix,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) and Danny Elfman (“Spider-Man (2002),” “Beetlejuice”) come to help flesh out this little island adventure as well. Pope’s cinematography is as playful as ever, keeping in the trademark sweeping “Raimi-cam” effects while still capturing the terrifying beauty of this natural landscape. Elfman’s score is as playful as Raimi’s direction, dabbling in high strings for tense moments and almost cartoonish effects for the more outlandish.
“Send Help” is as delightful as a film can be when it involves two people stranded on an island without any hope of returning home. Packed with two stellar lead performances, a chewy character driven script, and a director right at home with the material, it’s a delight we almost never get this early in the year. This is a B-movie concept where everyone is working at an A-movie level, and it’s a gleeful exercise in tense, goofy, gory fun. 4.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment