THE STORY – A woman and her overbearing boss become stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. They must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it’s a battle of wills and wits to make it out alive.
THE CAST – Rachel McAdams & Dylan O’Brien
THE TEAM – Sam Raimi (Director), Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 113 Minutes
It’s easy to recall the famous Roger Ebert quote that references cinema as the ultimate empathy machine. It quickly turns the plights of any character into ones an audience can easily identify with, no matter how far apart the two points of perspective may be in reality. However, some subjects find it easier to achieve this kind of emotional connection than others. For many, it’s a pretty common experience to work for a terrible boss, one that undermines your accomplishments, devalues your worth within the company, and takes for granted the irreplaceable skills you manage to showcase daily. This notion is also great fodder for broadly entertaining spectacle, even in the most absurd circumstances. The plot embedded in “Send Help” taps into this primal feeling and uses it to indulge in wild antics. It has a difficult time maintaining that energy consistently, but the tone brought by the filmmaking and the compelling performances go a long way toward keeping one invested.
For Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), there is a constant onslaught of abuse she endures while employed at her white-collar corporate office. Her administrative work is never fully appreciated by the upper management, who consistently find her quirky personality and disheveled appearance supremely off-putting. The feeling is made even worse when the new CEO, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), arrives with the objective of helping his closest colleagues. The promotion Linda had been eyeing is unceremoniously given to another rude, toxic manager, and her resentment intensifies. Bradley still offers to invite her on a business trip to Bangkok to help close an important deal, but tension remains high. However, en route to their destination, the plane suffers a malfunction in a storm and crashes. Linda swims to a nearby island, shortly before Bradley washes up to shore with an injured leg. In this environment, Linda now has the upper hand, as her obsession with joining “Survivor” has given her extensive survival knowledge. With the power structure now shifted, the two are in a battle to not just stay alive during this period of being stranded, but to outwit each other before completely losing control.
On the page, fairly simple dynamics are established, which will inevitably be re-examined as the balance of influence shifts between these two parties. Writers Damian Shannon and Mark Smith don’t really have a great track record for inventive storytelling, as their previous scripts for latter-day Jason Voorhees adventures and the remake of “Baywatch” would suggest. Even though this is an original story they’re tackling this time, there is a limit to how deep these characterizations go. Both Linda and Bradley are defined pretty broadly, even when the relationship starts to evolve in this new setting. Her nebbish personality doesn’t feel that defined outside of her “Survivor” obsession, and his blatantly rude misogyny is very stereotypical, with little notes to play in between. The issues are compounded when events become repetitive, and the pacing is inconsistent. Whatever fun there is to be had here doesn’t come from the writing.
The more engrossing elements of this narrative are mostly Sam Raimi’s responsibility. It’s fascinating to track the career of a man who started in low-budget, vividly expressive horror films and has since pivoted to grandiose superhero films and small-scale thrillers. Still, horror is where his passions always seem to lie. Even the more mainstream fare can’t help but indulge in set pieces that include a jump scare, like this one occasionally does. But Raimi’s sense of tone is vital here, as in using extreme close-ups to accentuate a ridiculous scene of sniffing tuna fish or the escalating violence of hunting down a wild boar. There’s gleeful joy in watching Raimi once again torture his actors with bodily fluids being poured onto their faces, and the extended fight scene at the end is a violent delight. Stabbings, strangulations, and eye-gougings underscore how nasty yet playfully aware the scenes can become. He even deserves credit for the more serious dramatic moments, though the ones meant to expose character growth are a bit tedious. But it’s fascinating how two scenes deal with a looming sexual assault, and both are executed with different tones. One lands more seriously than the other, but both are far better conceived on screen than necessarily on the page. Raimi always brings a high level of exuberance to his aesthetics, and that is quite valued when the story starts to stretch itself too thin.
McAdams really is a performer who can conjure a magnetic screen presence, and the same can be said of her portrayal here. There is an obvious change in demeanor from the eccentric office worker to a capable leader in the wilderness that is enjoyable to track. The first iteration is perhaps played with a bit too much force, but the contrast is all the more successful (it’s very funny how her complexion and hair get better when away from any modern luxuries). There is an insidious streak within Linda that McAdams successfully taps into, reminiscent of Raimi’s protagonist in “Drag Me to Hell,” though not quite as much hypocrisy, which made her ordeal more captivating. Still, there’s no denying the gravitas she brings to the role, and she is a good sparring partner with O’Brien. Unfortunately, his character doesn’t have as much to play with, even though there is an attempt to introduce a change in attitude given his new surroundings. Still, the script doesn’t give him much to do outside of being a massive jerk in the first act, then becoming relatively helpless and full of suspicion as the plot moves forward. He’s a great actor forced to tackle a character with very little complexity. The chemistry he shares with his on-screen partner is endearing, and O’Brien is committed to the physicality. However, there’s not much to really dive into regarding this character, and so his effectiveness is limited.
The idea behind “Send Help” is full of potential. You’re essentially watching a version of “Cast Away” unfold as a thriller with a more menacing tone, which is an enticing idea. Raimi’s efforts as director do a lot to bring out a campy tone amid the violence, which makes for an engaging ride. The commitment from McAdams and O’Brien goes a long way toward elevating their characters, and watching their changing dynamic unfold is intriguing. Yet these elements are fighting against a script that weighs down the other inventive aspects of the performances and filmmaking. The narrative is too broad and can’t sustain itself over this runtime. What little effort it makes to become a more layered piece of storytelling is undermined by flat characterizations. Raimi, McAdams, and O’Brien try to rise above it, but their contributions can’t fully address the pacing issues or the mundane setups. There is still plenty of amusement to be found, but the maximum amount of entertainment that can be had is hamstrung by a weak foundation.
