2026, Sami Raimi (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) -- download
The first ducked up thing that struck me about the movie was how much I disliked Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams, Aloha), upon meeting her. Maybe its more than a little transference, but the pseudo Dunning-Kruger energy she exhibited irritated me -- she assumed she was "exec material" purely because she was more capable than any of her peers. But being an executive is more than just knowing the business, its about social skills and knowing your environment. She was obviously not liked by her coworkers. And when newly CEO Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien, Love and Monsters) turns her down for the position she angrily believes she was entitled to because his father said she should have it, at the company Xmas party, I was actually on the same page as him. Not that his college buddy deserved it either, but he's just an NPC and Linda is a real character. She should know better.
And what has me yelling at the screen in hindsight is how intentional this was from Sam Raimi. Linda is not the hero of this movie. There are no heroes. And yet, he keeps on ducking with my expectations and my feelings. Damn him.
The scenes on the plane are absolutely cringe-worthy terrible -- not terrible film making, just terrible people being terrible. Any pretense of Preston being a real human are dispensed with, and more so for his toadies. They are literally cackling evil henchmen and I swore the terrible suits they were wearing were straight out of the ancient movie Wall Street. Their evil goes cartoon level when they turn on each other.
Say terrible one more time....
Once on the island, she shines. She has watched every episode of Survivor and even auditioned. This is not just a place she can survive, but a place she can thrive. Preston survives, but barely, and is nursed back to health by Linda. He initially is grateful but very very quickly reverts to "I am your boss!" mode and expects servitude. Linda does not take kindly to that and much of the second act is that tug of war between the two. Again, if this was a typical movie, they would struggle but eventually he would come to realize the situation requires a reversal of roles. Raimi plays with us, and then Preston tries to kill her, or at the very least incapacitate her. Big mistake.
By this time, we have already seen Linda skip right past being rescued by a passing boat, as she feels very very empowered here, and we have suspicions about the full nature of the island. I was convinced that just over the next rise, past the "don't go there, its dangerous!" region of the island, there was a full on resort for rich folk. The reveal is not far off. And that ending, where the conflict finally resolves, that is where we see the true natures of both of these people. No heroes.
What? You didn't spoil it? You always choose spoilership!
This is a Sam Raimi movie through and through. Like Kent, I recognize that his movies have varying degrees of success but we enjoy them. This one, while I doubt it will gain (have gained?) much box office success, it is a solid thriller in his cabinet of curiosities. I usually, at this point, suggest that its not perfectly on point, and a little bit of polish would have elevated it to Big Success, but honestly, I am not sure I want to see a Raimi film elevate to that level. His roughness, his gorey glee left over from his splatter-horror movies is always present, and can feel out of place to the non-Raimi enthusiast, but I enjoy the big grin it puts on my face when he goes just that little bit too far. When Linda showed up and tossed the bloody head of a boar on the ground, splattering Preston with a smattering of blood, he should have realized who he was dealing with, but the movie Raimi on'd.
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