Chris Knipp
08-13-2009, 03:30 AM
David Twohy: A Perfect Getaway (2009)
Review by Chris Knipp
A summertime break: extreme camping Pacific
Manohla Dargis calls this "a B-movie-style throwback that’s consistently diverting and blissfully free of morals and messages" and "a genuinely satisfying cheap thrill." Well, yes, this is definitely genre, a B-horror flick with the emphasis on muscular outdoor action. To make it as lushly outdoorsy as possible it's set on the island of Kauai -- where the water and rocks and lagoons in the picture come through as pulsating, lovely characters in themselves. (A lot of the broader panoramas have a curiously flat, fake look; maybe that's because much of this was shot not on Kauai but in Puerto Rico.) "Throwback"? I don't know. It's also got a distinctly modern, meta- quality to it. It's loaded with chatter about screenwriting, and as far as the cast go into the wild, they never stop using their video cameras and cell phones. There's a nice twist, because we don't really know who the bad guys (or gals) are. It's a bit of a cheat -- I'm not sure this movie would work on a second viewing, because some of the revelations just may not parse in terms of what's come before. But hey, she said "cheap" thrills, didn't she? A fool-proof script costs you extra. The thrills are there, alright. The movie contains a couple of jolts that will make you jump and it maintains intensity and a fast pace all the way through its hyperactive 97 minutes. Guaranteed: nobody stops to sunbathe or takes out a copy of Virginia Woolf. (John Anderson of the Washington Post thinks this movie will sell a lot of tickets to people who want to see if it makes any sense on second viewing.)
When honeymooners Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovanovich) come to the island, they're out for a challenging trek to an unspoiled beach. But there's danger, and hell isn't mosquitoes or humidity, but, just like for Sartre, it's other people. Couples, as it turns out. And that's another bit of a new wrinkle. Instead of giving us a gaggle of pretty boys and girls, Writer-director Twohy, having good fun here, gives us couples, three of them. It's a good idea because it provides personal dynamics that are a bit more complicated and hidden, and our very tendency to confuse the various couples only heightens the mystery and excitement.
When honeymooners Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovanovich) come to the island, they're out for a challenging trek to an unspoiled beach. But there's danger, and hell isn't mosquitoes or humidity, but, just like for Sartre, it's other people. Couples, as it turns out. And that's another bit of a new wrinkle. Instead of giving us a gaggle of pretty boys and girls, Writer-director Twohy, having good fun here, gives us couples, three of them. It's a good idea because it provides personal dynamics that are a bit more complicated and hidden, and our very tendency to confuse the various couples only heightens the mystery and excitement.Cliff and Cydney are where we start, couple number one. They have permits and an off-road vehicle and camping gear. Cliff is clean-shaven and nerdy, with tidy hair and dark framed glasses. He's the screenwriter. Cydney is a clean-cut looking girl. When they wind up being too suspicious of hitchhiking couple Kale and Cleo (Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton) just beyond the local store and won't give them a ride, this white-trash pair (who also claim to be newly wed) turns distinctly hostile. Yet they're going in the same direction. Kale is big and muscular and mean looking: trouble in the jungle could be coming.
It gets worse: there is news about that some honeymooners were brutally murdered on Oahu, and it looks like there's one of those couples you run into in movies whose main occupation is going around killing people for kicks. By this time the assassin couple could be island-hopping. (Jennifer Chambers Lynch's 'Surveillance' recently featured just such a couple.Compare the trickery in these two movies: it's pretty similar.) Then Cliff and Cydney run right into Nick (Timothy Olyphant), on the path. They're already spooked, so when Nick goes on with his wild tales about commando missions in Iraq and getting a plate in his head, it weirds Cliff out. Nick teases Cliff for his lack of "situation awareness" and calls himself "an American Jedi." Nick leads Cliff and Cydney to a waterfall where his girlfriend another pair, Gina (Kiele Sanchez), a southern lass, turns out to be swimming in the buff. Gina and Cydney get palsy. Gina calls Nick "a man in full." She also says he's "impossible to kill," a point worth remembering. The issue of machismo, hard to avoid in the outdoors, is on the table and will remain so. Zahn, a good comic actor who can also do action, is typically fine and workmanlike, but Olyphant really shines here, a wild card who's equal parts scary and adorable. It takes the whole movie to figure him out. Is he suspicious of Cliff's claims about having sold a script, or even about being a screenwriter? Hard to tell, because he seems eager to sell Cliff his own life story for a better script, though the better Nick's stories get, the harder it is to believe them.
When Nick kills a large wild goat and Gina proceeds to disembowel it for dinner, Cliff and Cydney agree they've "officially graduated to the 'crazy' category." But they feel it would be too awkward to separate from them now. Where are they going to go anyway? The trails don't allow for much privacy. Besides, that hostile couple is out there somewhere. It may be safer to stay with Nick and Gina than to go it alone.
The writing remains entertainingly tricky, and there's complex acting to go with it. This is what carries this B-picture, with its slashes and shocks, to a higher level. The characters and the acting are layered. And when the grisly battle to the death occurs, and the mystery is finally laid to rest, Tuohy doesn't drop the ball either. He does red herrings like the best in the business, but he does desperate combat very nicely too. (A black-and-white recap that is supposed to explain what we missed, may only show holes in the plot; lots to debate here though.) This may not be an imperishable classic. It was never meant to be anything but lively entertainment. But it's cheap thrills of quite a high order, clever, tricky, and muscular. Guaranteed to make you forget whatever's on your mind for the duration.
Review by Chris Knipp
A summertime break: extreme camping Pacific
Manohla Dargis calls this "a B-movie-style throwback that’s consistently diverting and blissfully free of morals and messages" and "a genuinely satisfying cheap thrill." Well, yes, this is definitely genre, a B-horror flick with the emphasis on muscular outdoor action. To make it as lushly outdoorsy as possible it's set on the island of Kauai -- where the water and rocks and lagoons in the picture come through as pulsating, lovely characters in themselves. (A lot of the broader panoramas have a curiously flat, fake look; maybe that's because much of this was shot not on Kauai but in Puerto Rico.) "Throwback"? I don't know. It's also got a distinctly modern, meta- quality to it. It's loaded with chatter about screenwriting, and as far as the cast go into the wild, they never stop using their video cameras and cell phones. There's a nice twist, because we don't really know who the bad guys (or gals) are. It's a bit of a cheat -- I'm not sure this movie would work on a second viewing, because some of the revelations just may not parse in terms of what's come before. But hey, she said "cheap" thrills, didn't she? A fool-proof script costs you extra. The thrills are there, alright. The movie contains a couple of jolts that will make you jump and it maintains intensity and a fast pace all the way through its hyperactive 97 minutes. Guaranteed: nobody stops to sunbathe or takes out a copy of Virginia Woolf. (John Anderson of the Washington Post thinks this movie will sell a lot of tickets to people who want to see if it makes any sense on second viewing.)
When honeymooners Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovanovich) come to the island, they're out for a challenging trek to an unspoiled beach. But there's danger, and hell isn't mosquitoes or humidity, but, just like for Sartre, it's other people. Couples, as it turns out. And that's another bit of a new wrinkle. Instead of giving us a gaggle of pretty boys and girls, Writer-director Twohy, having good fun here, gives us couples, three of them. It's a good idea because it provides personal dynamics that are a bit more complicated and hidden, and our very tendency to confuse the various couples only heightens the mystery and excitement.
When honeymooners Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovanovich) come to the island, they're out for a challenging trek to an unspoiled beach. But there's danger, and hell isn't mosquitoes or humidity, but, just like for Sartre, it's other people. Couples, as it turns out. And that's another bit of a new wrinkle. Instead of giving us a gaggle of pretty boys and girls, Writer-director Twohy, having good fun here, gives us couples, three of them. It's a good idea because it provides personal dynamics that are a bit more complicated and hidden, and our very tendency to confuse the various couples only heightens the mystery and excitement.Cliff and Cydney are where we start, couple number one. They have permits and an off-road vehicle and camping gear. Cliff is clean-shaven and nerdy, with tidy hair and dark framed glasses. He's the screenwriter. Cydney is a clean-cut looking girl. When they wind up being too suspicious of hitchhiking couple Kale and Cleo (Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton) just beyond the local store and won't give them a ride, this white-trash pair (who also claim to be newly wed) turns distinctly hostile. Yet they're going in the same direction. Kale is big and muscular and mean looking: trouble in the jungle could be coming.
It gets worse: there is news about that some honeymooners were brutally murdered on Oahu, and it looks like there's one of those couples you run into in movies whose main occupation is going around killing people for kicks. By this time the assassin couple could be island-hopping. (Jennifer Chambers Lynch's 'Surveillance' recently featured just such a couple.Compare the trickery in these two movies: it's pretty similar.) Then Cliff and Cydney run right into Nick (Timothy Olyphant), on the path. They're already spooked, so when Nick goes on with his wild tales about commando missions in Iraq and getting a plate in his head, it weirds Cliff out. Nick teases Cliff for his lack of "situation awareness" and calls himself "an American Jedi." Nick leads Cliff and Cydney to a waterfall where his girlfriend another pair, Gina (Kiele Sanchez), a southern lass, turns out to be swimming in the buff. Gina and Cydney get palsy. Gina calls Nick "a man in full." She also says he's "impossible to kill," a point worth remembering. The issue of machismo, hard to avoid in the outdoors, is on the table and will remain so. Zahn, a good comic actor who can also do action, is typically fine and workmanlike, but Olyphant really shines here, a wild card who's equal parts scary and adorable. It takes the whole movie to figure him out. Is he suspicious of Cliff's claims about having sold a script, or even about being a screenwriter? Hard to tell, because he seems eager to sell Cliff his own life story for a better script, though the better Nick's stories get, the harder it is to believe them.
When Nick kills a large wild goat and Gina proceeds to disembowel it for dinner, Cliff and Cydney agree they've "officially graduated to the 'crazy' category." But they feel it would be too awkward to separate from them now. Where are they going to go anyway? The trails don't allow for much privacy. Besides, that hostile couple is out there somewhere. It may be safer to stay with Nick and Gina than to go it alone.
The writing remains entertainingly tricky, and there's complex acting to go with it. This is what carries this B-picture, with its slashes and shocks, to a higher level. The characters and the acting are layered. And when the grisly battle to the death occurs, and the mystery is finally laid to rest, Tuohy doesn't drop the ball either. He does red herrings like the best in the business, but he does desperate combat very nicely too. (A black-and-white recap that is supposed to explain what we missed, may only show holes in the plot; lots to debate here though.) This may not be an imperishable classic. It was never meant to be anything but lively entertainment. But it's cheap thrills of quite a high order, clever, tricky, and muscular. Guaranteed to make you forget whatever's on your mind for the duration.