This week’s film is “Send Help,” directed by Sam Raimi.
The director swore he would cast Rachel McAdams again after he acknowledged her underutilized role in MCU’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
In this film, Raimi steals from Alfred Hitchcock’s strategy casting Janet Leigh as an absconding thief in “Psycho” as he similarly casts McAdams against type as a surprisingly dark character.
McAdams plays Linda Little, an under-appreciated number cruncher whose only friend is a bird.
Linda becomes stranded on a remote island with Bradley Preston, her company’s new CEO, played by Dylan O’Brien (“Twinless” Sundance 2025).
Linda and Bradley recently developed a mutual hate for one another when Bradley inherited the company from his father, and Bradley refused to honor his father’s promise to promote Linda, instead bringing a golf bro-tocracy to the boardroom.
When the disgruntled employee and brat boss are marooned on the island, the tables are turned.
Linda apparently honed her survival skills in hopes of one day auditioning for “Survivor,” and pretty boy Bradley apparently never learned to light a fire or catch a fish on a golf course pond.
Both actors are all in as they express their characters with befitting albeit stereotypical characteristics.
Mutual co-dependence necessitated for survival yields temporary truces, but the irreconcilable power imbalance creates a perpetual failure to let bygones be bygones.
So, on my ski trail rating system, “Send Help” earns my intermediate BLUE ski trail rating.
Rachel McAdams slays it in a deliciously dark performance.
Her facial expressions literally contort seamlessly between piercing rage and moments of inner tranquility as her character teeters between authoritarian revenge and nature-induced harmony.
The resulting mash-up of “Misery” meets “War of the Roses” has shockingly hilarious moments, but hastily edited transitions in between the interpersonal warfare feature over-simplified office politics which too easily villainize Bradley in a manner that diffuses that gripping sense of tension one expects from a standout dark comedy.
The result is still a fun romp with everyone rooting for revenge of the nerd.
“Send Help” is playing locally at Megaplex at Park City, with a run-time of 115 minutes.
The film is rated R for strong, bloody violence, language and repeated violation of blood-borne pathogen training.
