Send Help - Review

Synopsis:

After surviving a plane crash, two colleagues are stranded on a remote island with no way to call for rescue. As days turn into weeks, survival becomes less about food and shelter and more about trust, fear, and what they're willing to do to stay alive.

Tensions rise as the island reveals that escape may not be the only thing at stake.

Review:

I really, really, REALLY wanted to love “Send Help.”

A little background on me and Mr. Sam Raimi, the film’s director: like most millennials who grew up during the mid-2000s, I was basically raised on his “Spider-Man” trilogy, with the first two movies in particular bordering on being foundational texts for my then-bourgeoning-movie-lover self. Over the years, I’ve managed to catch up with most of his filmography at various points, with “Drag Me to Hell,” “Army of Darkness,” “The Quick and the Dead,” “Darkman” and even “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (super underrated, IMO) all being varying degrees of great (the less said about “Oz: The Great and Powerful” and “Spider-Man 3,” however, the better).

The man is, if nothing else, a singular stylist, and based on the reviews his latest has received (as of this writing, it sits at a more-than-solid 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 75 on Metacritic), its surprise box office legs, and the overall positive word-of-mouth I’d heard from others, I walked into “Send Help” psyched to be wowed, once again, by Mr. Raimi and his bag of cinematic tricks.

Unfortunately, it’s possible that my expectations were too high — because “Send Help,” while fun in spots, definitely falls closer to the “near miss” side of the ledger for me than “cinematic triumph.”

That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot to like here — because there is. The biggest strengths of “Send Help” are EASILY found in the performances, specifically from Rachel McAdams, who proves yet again here why she’s so quietly and consistently dependable. Playing her character, Linda, with a mixture of Beth Harmon-style intellect from “The Queen’s Gambit” crossed with Annie Wilkes-style psychosis from “Misery” (the movie that “Send Help” most clearly echoes), McAdams imbues the character with a depth of humanity that the script, frustratingly, doesn’t always earn. Honestly, there are significant chunks of “Send Help” that simply would not have worked had McAdams not sold them with the conviction that she alone brings to them.

Playing against her is Dylan O’Brien, who has spent the better part of the last 5-or-so years following the “Robert Pattinson-post-Twilight” playbook: lean hard into unexpected, credibility-building roles and, over time, gradually train audiences to re-evaluate what you’re capable of. It’s a smart career move, and O’Brien is more than up to the task — he’s great here, straddling the line just right between jerk and sympathetic while being careful to not overstep into self-parody of either. The chemistry between McAdams and O’Brien is the chief reason to see “Send Help,” and the movie’s pleasure is primarily found in watching the relationship between Linda and Bradley constantly shift from antagonistic, to tentatively collaborative, to hostile, and then back, over and over again. Whatever the movie’s other failings may be, the dynamic between its two leads is never one of them.

Unfortunately — at least for me —too much of “Send Help” feels half-baked, particularly on a script-level. Without delving into spoilers, the longer Raimi’s film goes on, the more contrived and mechanical the scenarios get, to the point that the film’s entire internal logic begins to strain credibility (I’m not going to lie, by the time we get to the film’s final 20-or-so minutes, my eyes were basically lodged in the back of my skull from rolling so hard).

Obviously, Raimi’s movies generally don’t tend to operate in the realm of strict realism (with the possible exception of “A Simple Plan”), and a degree of heightened absurdity is warranted, given the basis premise of the movie — but even for him, there’s a level of narrative convenience here that feels unusually sloppy, bordering on being (I hate to say it) lazy. It’s frustrating, because literally everyone here is game —McAdams and O’Brien fully commit to the material, Danny Elfman’s score is catchy, and Raimi’s direction is as energetic as ever. The letdown here is the story, and the longer I get away from “Send Help,” the more glaring its narrative weaknesses feel.

So, yeah. A bummer, especially for this Raimi fan who was eager to see him knock another ball out of the park. “Send Help” certainly isn’t a catastrophe, and I’ll admit that there’s probably enough here to enjoy on a casual, surface-level. But for a movie that has so much talent behind and in front of the camera, the final product here falls well short of coming together into a satisfying whole. And it’s hard not to wish for the better version that was buried here.

Grade: B -

*SPOILERS*

Spiritual Overview:

On the surface, “Send Help” might not seem to be overtly spiritual…but dig a bit deeper into its sandy depths, and I THINK there are some interesting nuggets that we can mine from it.

One theme in particular that jumped out to me here was the idea of the “illusion of self-sufficiency”….or rather, our inability to sustain our own independence for very long. Bradley, O’Brien’s character, starts the movie as cocky and self-assured, convinced that he can outthink any situation he’s placed in, no matter how dire or how little actual survival experience he himself possesses. Linda, on the other hand, is literally his exact opposite: a die-hard fan of "Survivor," she is the planner, the strategist, the realist— she has spent the last 20+ years preparing for literally this EXACT scenario, and she’s willing to help Bradley, so long as he’s willing to admit his need for it.

For a large chunk of the film’s proceedings, however, Bradley continually chooses instead to try to assert control over the situation, treating their stranding on the island like it’s basically an extension of their corporate environment back home, all while expecting Linda to fall in line, just as she always has. But Linda recognizes that their circumstances are, well, “unique,” and pushes back. What results is a cycle, repeated ad nauseum, as time and time again, we watch Bradley a.) lash out in an attempt to reassert dominance, b.) fail spectacularly, c.) crawl back to Linda for forgiveness and her support, all before eventually d.) lashing out again. Rinse, dry and repeat. It’s an interesting dynamic, and while I doubt that Raimi and screenwriters were consciously intending to make a theological statement through it, I couldn’t help but think about the way that this pattern all too often mirrors our own relationship with our Father.

In the Bible, we continually read about how Israel turns away from God, descending into idolatry and self-reliance, only to eventually cry out for deliverance, over and over again. God repeatedly forgives and restores his people, despite their constant screw-ups. It’s a pattern that’s familiar to most Christians: as much as we desire to trust God fully, our own human nature is inherently sinful, and for as long as we’re here on earth, the battle between our flesh and our spirit will be ongoing. Romans 7:18 sums it up pretty well: “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

Watching Linda and Bradley, I was struck by how deeply resistant we ourselves are to dependence to anyone we deem "greater" than ourselves…as well as how often humility is itself EXPLICITLY learned (and re-learned) through failure. It’s a challenging idea, and one that “Send Help,” intentionally or not, ends up exploring with a surprising amount of clarity.

Who woulda thought it?

What did you think about "Send Help"? Did it work better for you than it did for me? And were there any interesting spiritual themes that jumped out at you amidst the Sam Raimi-isms? Comment below.