Send Help

The best part of Triangle of Sadness was the final third. Whereas all that came before was tired and obvious, it gets a lot more interesting when the hoard of rich people wash up on a deserted island after their luxury cruise wrecks, and the same "peons" they've been bossing around the whole time are the only ones with relevant skills. Not only that, but led by Dolly de Leon in an iconic role, they are unafraid to wield their power with the same ruthlessness to which they had been subjected. It's a simple but incisive comment on power structures and human nature and capitalism and just how much value we've placed on distance from the natural order.

While the premise of Send Help is deeply indebted to that situation, Sam Rami and Reuben Ostlund are very different filmmakers. Rami also has a hell of a mean streak (see: The Evil Dead), and plays out the scenario for comedy, but is far less interested in societal critiques. A setup involving an inversion of power dynamics is incapable of saying nothing, and the final shot makes clear he's got some thoughts. But everything in between is a mix of going for big, absurd fun, and making you think about what you'd be capable of in a comparable situation. Are you more of a Linda Little (Rachel McAdams) or a Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien)? And how many of you who think they're Linda have ever actually started a fire without the assistance of modern technology?

Not that anything indicates Linda had prior to their plane crash. She was just a workaholic bird-lady eating lunch at her desk while trying to prove to her new boss Bradley that she's deserving of that promotion his father had promised before his passing. These dragged out opening scenes endear Linda to us, despite her intensity and lack of care for her appearance. It's also a chance for Rami to signal the cartoonish nature of his movie, whose special effects will err in the direction of Looney Tunes, and whose camerawork will impress even as the narrative does not.

Once on the island, the broad strokes of the plot hold few surprises, and few insights. Bradley and Linda are the only survivors of the accident, and the earlier lingering shots on Linda's bookshelf make obvious how this is going to play out. There's no need for Bradley to break his leg to be useless. In fact, once he heals well enough to walk on his own (albeit stiffly), he storms off to establish his own camp. It goes just as poorly as you would think, so he fairly quickly comes grovelling back to Linda. His limited mobility only serves to explain why he hasn't ventured to the area Linda labeled as off limits due to thick, poison bushes, which the audience knows is a lie after catching a glimpse of a boat earlier prompted her to mutter "Not yet..."

McAdams very capably translates Linda's bubbly, corny, strange office presence full of lame jokes onto her island dominion. She's clearly the same fundamental person, but can now use her skills to command respect, and begins to glow in the light of her natural habitat. She doesn't go anywhere near as power hungry and abusive as de Leon's despotic turn, but she's not afraid to remind Bradley that she's the one keeping him alive. McAdams so thoroughly hurls Linda into her new surroundings that you have no trouble believing her wild, blood pumping, hysterically funny downing of a crazed wild boar. Especially after some later revelations about her past.

But it's in those secrets that the movie starts to lose some of its banked goodwill. Linda is undeniably sympathetic, refusing to "get back" at her asshole boss like a character from the the 90s office satires to which this is so indebted. Although that mask does periodically slip to reveal some real darkness that threatens our view of her, it always snaps back. Until all of a sudden, it rears its head in a shocking way that the film never truly deals with, even as it's acknowledged. That it vacillates for so long before finally committing to her depravity makes the film's perspective feel conflicted rather than confident, a great example of how difficult it is for a film to have its cake and eat it, too.

Meanwhile, O'Brien successfully plays Bradley as an out and out snake. Even at his weakest moments, there's a glint in his eye you cannot trust. He always feels like he's up to something, a suspicion frequently validated. His arrogance makes for some excellent little moments, both as he confidently screws up, and how he inevitably ends up lower than before, even more dependent on Linda from Accounting Strategy & Planning.

Sure, it drags on too long, leans too hard into archetypes, and doesn't have as much fun with its premise as it could. It doesn't have all that much to say that you can't get more thoroughly explored elsewhere, including the final act of a another whole film. But Rami still goes hard enough, dials up the camp, and puts on a hellova show. After a January full of disappointments, there are far worse ways to spend two hours.