Outwit, outplay, outlast: McAdams finds the fun in ultimate work revenge picture
Before seeing Send Help, I had read some early buzz calling the film a cross between Castaway and Misery. After seeing it, however, I would posit that it’s actually more like Triangle of Sadness meets Office Space. Regardless of any cinematic comparisons, one thing is for certain: despite its inevitable descent into campy ridiculousness, Send Help provides some decent January escapism.
Directed by Sam Raimi of Spider-Man and Evil Dead franchise fame, Send Help is not without a high gore factor, no doubt thanks to its co-writing team. Screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon collaborated on the recent Friday the 13th and Freddy vs. Jason horror films, and bloody, I-can’t-look scares are their well-plied trade.
Before leading us to their obligatory gross-out scenes, Raimi, Swift, and Shannon deliver a relatable premise that immediately elicits our sympathy. Linda (Rachel McAdams) is a longtime employee of a family-owned financial firm. Exceedingly competent but somewhat meek and socially awkward, Linda assumes she’s in line for a big promotion She’s devastated when her new boss, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien, Twinless), the smarmy son of the recently deceased company founder, passes her up in lieu of his college golfing buddy. Needing Linda’s help on a big report, Bradley allows Linda to travel on the firm’s private plane to a merger meeting in Bangkok, promising a reassessment if her work helps win the deal.
When the unthinkable happens and the plane crashes on a remote island in the Gulf of Thailand, Linda, a die-hard Survivor fan who even auditioned for the show (Bradley and his lackeys mercilessly snicker over her audition video), the tables turn. Bradley must rely on Linda to survive, and Linda, who has to keep reminding Bradley she’s not in accounting, but strategy and planning, gains the upper hand with her mad–you guessed it–strategy and planning skills.
To say any more would spoil the fun, but suffice to say the power dynamic between Linda and Bradley shifts repeatedly, in ways big, small, cruel, and downright psychotic. Raimi and company maintain their sense of humor throughout, and give us just as many laugh-out-loud moments as screams. Anyone who’s ever felt undermined or underappreciated by a boss will love the film’s revenge fantasy aspect, and, on that level, the movie more than succeeds.
The film’s set-up and middle drag a bit, though, and the story becomes increasingly ludicrous as it goes on. And yes, the ending feels a little too neat, with more than a few plot questions left unanswered, but a movie like this isn’t trying to earn points for realism. With a little suspension of disbelief, we can cheer Linda on as she takes down a mansplaining, pompous nepo baby who is significantly less smart than he thinks he is, and exponentially less intelligent than she is. McAdams and O’Brien have terrific chemistry, and McAdams especially seems to relish the role of a hesitant woman coming into her own as she embraces her confident, bad-ass true self. That’s not a bad message of empowerment from a lightweight, jump-scare thriller: As Linda tells us, no help is coming, so you better start saving yourself.
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Send Help is currently playing, including at the AMC Metreon, the AMC Kabuki, and the Apple Van Ness in San Francisco, at the Grand Lake and the Regal Jack London in Oakland, at the AMC Bay Street in Emeryville, and at the Cinemark Century theaters in Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill.
