Review: A Perfect Getaway

Three couples vacationing in Hawaii and taking a long trek to a gorgeous beach, catch wind of reports that a couple of newlyweds have been murdered in another part of Hawaii. Are one of our three couples the guilty party? Is it someone else that we haven’t seen? Needless to say, it’s not just the audience asking the question. Screenwriter Steve Zahn and bride Milla Jovovich are slightly gawky newlyweds, whilst the other couples are played by Timothy Olyphant (as a supposed special ops guy with a nifty crossbow and a lot of tall tales that may or may not be true) and Kiele Sanchez (who is handy at cutting up animal carcasses without getting queasy), and Chris Hemsworth and hippie-like Marley Shelton (the former being a surly sort who is angered when Zahn hesitates in giving them a lift early on).

I’m usually pretty cluey when it comes to working out who the killer is in a mystery or guessing the twist ending of a film before it gets to the destination. Hell, I picked the ending of “Twisted” before the damn movie even started (I’m not bragging, it was just a terrible film from a director who should’ve known much better and the trailer was transparent). Oh sure, “The Usual Suspects” got me, but hey, fess up, it got you too! Shut up, you LIE! You had NO idea where that film was headed, first time around. Anyway, I have to confess this 2009 killer-thriller from writer-director David Twohy (known for modest genre fare like “Pitch Black” and “The Arrival”) got me, and it got me good. For much of its length I thought I had it pegged down, it seemed obvious in fact, to the point where I was starting to doubt the film’s intelligence and whether I was enjoying it or not, as a transparent twist ending does tend to ruin the whole experience for me. I was wrong. Dead wrong. I clearly wasn’t paying close enough attention. I just figured it was a variation on “The River Wild” (i.e. A simple mixture of outdoor adventure flick and psycho-thriller) mixed with “Straw Dogs” (wimpy nerd forced to defend himself and his beloved against violent threat), not seeing that there were more twists and turns to come.

You see, without trying to spoil anything for those of you unexposed to this fine little B-movie (but for those of you worried, CEASE READING NOW, come back after you’ve seen the film), Twohy gives us three main couples, and we’re pretty sure one of them (or at least one half of one couple) will be the guilty party, leaving the other two to be red herrings or distractions. I knew this, I simply jumped on the wrong damn wagon. And then...that tricksy Twohy bastard had me jumping on the wrong damn wagon a second time just when I thought I had found my bearings. I just wasn’t clued in to what the man was doing. Even more egregiously, the clever bugger had the balls to have a screenwriter for a main character and feature dialogue that directly references ‘red herrings’, or ‘red snappers’ as Olyphant is convinced they are called. Now that’s just being a smarty-pants, Mr. Twohy, stop rubbing it in my face! Needless to say, when the big reveal came, I let out a colourful four-letter exclamation, and I mean it in the most positive of ways. I was deceived and surprised but did not feel cheated. The funny thing is, I appear to be in a slight minority, many people accuse the film of being transparent from pretty early on. The even funnier thing is, if you look at reviews on line, those who say they worked out the ending, disliked the film, whilst those like me who enjoyed it, tend to say they were surprised. Those who dislike the ending say that it’s a cheat, but those people weren’t paying attention, and if you watch the film again, it all adds up, because things that one interprets one way, can actually be taken another, and still make perfect sense. There’s more going on here than such-and-such is/are the killer/s. Twohy isn’t a stupid man, he’s thought this out, folks, and whilst many people may have worked out the ‘who’ in whodunit, they likely haven’t understood why they’ve done it. So if you think you saw the twist coming basically, you kinda didn’t work it all out and the film is ultimately much cleverer (can you believe spell-check actually has ‘cleverer’ listed as a word? I always thought it was made up!) than you might think it is, whilst waiting for it to unfold. What Twohy ultimately gives us is an interesting and clever depiction of sociopathic behaviour carefully concealed by perfect typecasting (yes you read that correctly), red herrings, misleading dialogue scenes, and other techniques. Well played, Mr. Twohy, well played indeed. The film is OK, Twohy’s clever twist, however, elevates it to a slightly higher level. I will say, however, that the “Wild Things”-style ‘Look, this is how we fooled you- Aren’t we clever?’ flashback reveal to the audience is a tad overlong. We get the point fairly quickly and it drags a little.

Good performances by all of the cast, especially the always interesting Olyphant (a most versatile and charismatic actor who has overcome that minor misstep known as “Die Hard 4.0”) and Zahn (who finds new kinks to his awkward- bordering on spaced out- persona here), who both seem to be having a good time messing with the audience (as are all the actors I suppose). Even Chris Hemsworth manages to not sound like he has a case of the flu, for once. Gorgeous scenery (Puerto Rico cast in the role of Hawaii, for some reason) captured by cinematographer Mark Plummer is a major plus to this enjoyable, twisty B-movie.

Give it a go if you like you’re twisty flicks with a side helping of attractive young people in gorgeous surroundings. A solid B-movie.

Rating: B-