If you ask any working adult if they ever had a revenge fantasy about a bad boss, odds are they have. If they deny it, they are lying through their teeth as they visually inflict some gory and violent scene upon the supervisor from their summer job 20 years ago. Ask them who they would like to direct an adaptation of said revenge fantasy, Sam Raimi would be a great pick. Good thing his newest cinematic effort, Send Help, is everything a burnt-out corporate cog-in-the-machine could want in a film.
Rachel McAdams plays Lisa Liddle, a hard-working yet socially awkward woman who is hanging all her hopes and dreams on the promotion her late boss promised her. Taking his place is his polished, arrogant son, who values looks and bro-code more than doing the right thing. Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) sees Lisa more as an office nuisance, a gross obstacle he is more than willing to send away to a satellite office. Sure, she has greasy hair, zero social skills, and eats tuna sandwiches at her desk. When he blatantly passes her over in favor of her do-nothing boss, Lisa doubles down and decides to change his mind during a business trip abroad.
Of course, the bullying continues during their flight when Bradley and her coworkers discover Lisa’s audition tape for Survivor, blatant product placement for the show’s upcoming 50th season that the film soon forgets. Karma comes for them instantly when the plane starts to crash, killing all but two people onboard: Lisa and Bradley. When they both wash up on the shore of the same island, power dynamics change, people get hurt, and the thought of being rescued drifts further and further away.
Send Help is fun. Easily the most realistically gross deserted island movie that we’ve seen in years. Slurping, killing of boars, vomiting on poisonous berries — all provide brilliant and often hilarious contrast to the beautiful scenery. Raimi knows what he’s doing, whether it’s letting the script breathe or when to play into romance and power dynamics. Frequent Raimi collaborator Danny Elfman plays into the film’s campier elements with his score. It’s big and noticeable, emphasizing melodrama with a splash of comedy.
McAdams is having a blast playing Lisa. In a boisterous performance, she brings out a powerful, pathetic side to her character that we’ve never seen from her before. If cringe empathy is a thing, you’ll feel it watching her. She’s never been more unappealing onscreen and it creates brilliant chemistry with Dylan O’Brein’s douche-canoe Bradley. He teeters between whiny and power-hungry, desperate and delusional. As Lisa’s confidence rises and his power dwindles, you can see the fear in his eyes, and his shoulders sag in hopelessness.
While Raimi seems like an accurate choice for a revenge film, I do wish he leaned in a bit more on the social politics of it all. Can a man really understand the social beauty expectations the corporate world pushes upon women, forcing them to comply to a “certain” look or face certain financial ruin? There’s a whole other movie here that dives into capitalistic gender dynamics that Raimi doesn’t want to touch. Send Help leans further away from a smart satire and lands more into a campy revenge romp. By the film’s final 20 minutes, the concept starts to get old. The tension between O’Brien and McAdams starts fizzle, and you want Raimi to wrap it up. The final scene won’t be for everyone, and is jarring at best, but for a January movie, Send Help is better than most.