Send Help – Movie Reviews by Ry!

Send Help – Workday Survival … I am the Island Boss

Whenever you achieve a dream, what is the fallout from your success?  The trials and tribulations of your quest become the forges of characterization.  From struggle and folly, we strive for something through the obscurities of the journey.  In film, these creative twists help propel something unique, leading to an experience that can be truly amazing.  In this review, I look at the latest thriller to hit the big screen.  Through a simple setup, Send Help is an interesting tale of survival … one that puts a new meaning on what it means to be … the boss.

When the unthinkable happens, an employee and her boss will have to put bygones aside if they are to survive on a deserted island.  Storytelling is a manner of creativity and choice.  For film, it is a platform where there is a basis of ‘what, where and how’ … but from that point on, it becomes a lush of unknown possibilities.  For director Sam Raimi, he likes to push ideas in a way that leads to unique tales that blur tropes and cliches through a dark comedic tone.  This film is no exception.  In the beginning, we meet Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), a hardworking employee for a financial firm.  After quirky conversations and general exposition, we learn that she deals with workplace harassment, which is heightened by the new head of the company, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien).  There encounter leads to some friction, which setups the main plot point; Linda and Bradley get stranded on a desert island after there plane to Thailand crashes.  Unable to contact the mainland, they have to figure out a way to survive each other’s company.  From here, the journey becomes a crash course of creative blurs of genre, characters and expectations.  On the surface, their relationship moves through a mixture of highs and lows, as Linda’s wonky like personality clashes with Bradley’s privileged man-child persona.  This helps build up vivid scenes through individual contrast, providing raw tension when it comes to facing the unknowns of a stranded island.  Through grounded conversations, the reality of the moment builds up the frictional aspect of survival through satirical tones on … what is control, what is leadership and what is strategy.  The levity of themes through the creative directions builds up an everyday placed in the obscurity of the film’s foundation.  From tense moments to the flaws of human worth, it is a journey that showcases the strength of direction in the quirky antics of the playground (created by Sam Raimi). 

As days move forward, Linda and Bradley start to waver through the highs and lows of being stranded.  The obscurity of moments is complimented by the honest and raw dialogue.  The chemistry between McAdams and O’Brien adds to that imagery, elevating a situation that could have been hard to grip (for the audience).  As new truths about the island are revealed, we head into a third act of predictability and convenient plot moments.  Even when things seem obvious, the satire and themes stand tall in a gratifying climax and epilogue.  Send Help is a journey of obscure hijinks of what it means to achieve your dream.  If you are a fan of Sam Raimi or survival films, this is one for you.  For everyone else, I believe this film is worth the full price of admission. 

Full Score – 4 out of 5 (Full Price)