by Chris Bakker, Contributing Writer
Sam Raimi hadn’t released a movie in almost a decade when he took over from Scott Derrickson to make Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness; a movie that combined his experiences in the superhero and the horror genres. Four years after the release of that movie, Raimi has taken Rachel McAdams from her supporting role in the world of Doctor Strange and put her front and center in his new film, Send Help.
On its face, Send Help might be best assigned into the category of films like Cast Away; a plane crash has our leads wash up on a small island somewhere in the middle of the ocean, where they must find ways to survive long enough for help to arrive.
McAdams plays Linda Liddle, a survival hobbyist and office worker at a consulting firm who has just seemingly missed out on the big promotion her new boss’ father had promised her. As fate would have it, her new boss Bradley Preston, played by Dylan O’Brien, also survives the crash, despite his injuries, and washes up on the very same island. The movie then follows the two of them as they must learn to navigate the new balance within their power dynamic as they try to survive their predicament.
As you might expect from a Sam Raimi movie, Send Help does not skimp on his love of gnarly imagery inherent in a plane crash movie with two rivals stranded on an island together. But also, exactly as you might expect from Sam Raimi, that “gnarliness” is played primarily for laughs. In doing so, he relies heavily on the double act of McAdams and O’Brien, whose chemistry is through the roof and would be enough to carry the movie by itself, if Raimi’s creative flair itself wasn’t already up to snuff. Whether it’s Linda’s first encounter with the wildlife on this island, or one particularly gross scene that involves a near-drowning, Raimi never fails to remind you who’s behind the camera here, and if you’re a fan of his sensibilities, especially, he springs them on you at just the right moments.
In multiple sequences, where the tension between these characters bubbles towards boiling over, there are new and inventive ways of centering our leads and simply allowing them to bring their comedic talents to the forefront in what is inherently pretty dark subject matter. McAdams is allowed to unleash a quiet and reserved woman’s hilariously fully realized self when she’s let loose in an environment seemingly tailor-made for her, whereas O’Brien’s facial expressions and overall reaction to being put in a situation where he is clearly out of his depths allows for a tremendous amount of physical comedy.
At the heart of this movie, is the fact that the new CEO of a company has to rely on one of his employees to survive; an incredibly productive and efficient employee he intended to push aside in order to appoint one of his golf buddies. Underneath the movie’s both gross and tremendously funny depictions about the realities of surviving on an island in the middle of nowhere is that mirror to the real world. Linda as a simple office worker knows her job well, whereas Bradley as a CEO is simply sitting on his father’s success. She’s a skilled person, while he relies on the people who work for him to solve his problems. Send Help simply removes any abstractions from the reality that those who have to work for a living are possessed of an entirely different skillset in when it comes to survival than those who never need to worry about anything as long as the money holds out. Beyond that, it knows to ask what happens when those dynamics shift, and the rich and comfortable are suddenly beholden to those they thought beneath them.
Raimi makes sure that his version of the ‘eat the rich’-style cinema that’s been popping up more and more as of late holds onto those themes all the way through but never forgets that he’s here first and foremost to make a movie that works on nothing but its premise alone. And with Rachel McAdams in full force, owning every moment she’s on screen, there’s very little about Send Help that doesn’t work, especially if you’re coming into it expecting to see some particularly gruesome stuff.
Rating: Loved It
Send Help is currently playing in theaters
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