Send Help review: HR would not approve
‘Send Help’ is an amusing thriller that turns the tables on a condescending boss when he becomes stranded with a disgruntled subordinate.
Most employees of a certain age have had the unfortune of working at a bad company and/or for a bad boss. Perhaps they treated you poorly, failed to respect your expertise, overlooked you for advancement or any other number of things that can make your employment feel diminishing. People will say it’s just a job, so don’t take it personally. But that’s difficult to do when it occupies so much of your time. Few ever get the opportunity to turn the tables. In Send Help, stranded co-workers experience a role reversal that could have devastating consequences.
Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a hard worker, but her social game is awkward at best. Nonetheless, she excels in her strategic planning role and is in line for a big promotion — until her boss’ arrogant son, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), takes over the business. Now, she faces a series of soul-crushing disappointments that culminate in the company’s plane crashing off the coast of a remote island. Bradley’s injury means it all falls on Linda to keep them alive. Fortunately, she’s spent years preparing to be a contestant on Survivor and being marooned presents an unexpected chance to put her skills to the test.
It’s ironic that Linda trained to pretend to be stranded on an island only to have to apply her knowledge in a real life-or-death situation. Though she looks meek and disorganized in the office, Linda proves to be a true, if somewhat exaggerated, survivalist. She’s able to independently start a fire, make a shelter, forage and hunt, exponentially increasing their chances to stay alive. She also decorates and tries to replicate as many of the creature comforts of home as possible. Meanwhile, Bradley can do nothing but mooch off her skills and complain about their situation.
Audiences quickly recognize fate’s given the bullied kid the upper hand and she’s not about to waste it. Linda is living the oppressed’s dream. She seizes the opportunity to teach Bradley a lesson in humility by using his own belittling words against him. Even though Linda grasps the change in dynamics immediately, it takes Bradley longer to realize he doesn’t wield any power here. He’s so accustom to being a handsome, privileged, white man, it’s inconceivable that she wouldn’t still recognize his authority. But that went down with the plane.
Director Sam Raimi is best known for the Evil Dead franchise and the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films. This movie falls somewhere in between those horror and action genres. It’s a categorical thriller with rising tensions between the unevenly matched characters. Audiences quickly learn fear can be just as emboldening as the lack of it. But Raimi also can’t resist including a few gory sequences, choosing to layer violence and blood splatter over the film’s underlying dark humour. The plane crash is a brilliant blend of shock and carnage, setting the tone for the rest of the narrative.
The conclusion isn’t so much a twist as a confirmation of earlier suspicions. McAdams perfectly depicts Linda’s evolving personality. She begins the film out of place and discouraged, which makes the few steps she takes on her own behalf a mix of inspiring and cringeworthy. But on the island, she’s in her element and everything about her scream’s confidence. This is especially true in the moments when her inner darkness emerges to remind Bradley who’s in control. Meanwhile, O’Brien understands his assignment, playing the frat boy that everyone loves to hate to a tee.
Raimi keeps the tensions high throughout the picture. There’s a constant struggle for power to keep everyone on their toes. Secret plotting and stolen glances are just some of the signs of mistrust that mars Linda and Bradley’s partnership. Thus, Raimi expertly uses framing and nature’s landscape to blur the truth. But it’s not all hostile as he still sprinkles in some laughs, usually at Bradley’s expense.
It seems antithetical to call a thriller fun, but Raimi knows how to negotiate a merger so all the conditions are met.
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien and Xavier Samuel
