The visionary Sam Raimi, acclaimed for his Spider-Man trilogy and many films that possess a dynamic visual style, returns to the screen with the undauntable survival-thriller Send Help.
The story shows how Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) — the star employee from a company’s Planning & Strategy Department— and Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) — the newly appointed CEO of the company where Linda works — suddenly find themselves stranded on a deserted island after becoming the sole survivors of a plane crash. There, they must overcome old resentments and test their willpower to save themselves.
The film is delightfully politically incorrect, whilst at the same time championing ethics. There is a very strong critique carried out towards the nepo babies who find themselves leading a company with an attitude of entitlement and superiority complex towards their employees. Bradley is snotty and arrogant with Linda, because he considers her ungraceful and nerdy. Yet, once he is on the island with her, he’ll realise what a crucial resource she is to his survival. At the same time Linda will conquer audiences for the way her personality is a tapestry of lights and shadows.
The film is brilliant in bringing together elements of comedy, horror, drama, thriller, thanks to a brilliant script — penned by the A Quiet Place duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods — that has been heightened by the performances of the cast, especially by Rachel McAdams, who proves once again to be a phenomenally versatile actress. The film arrives in cinemas in concurrence with her receiving a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, with the support of her costar Dylan O’Brien and director of this film Sam Raimi.
Send Help has allowed the director to return to his ensanguined-original genre epitomised by the Evil Dead trilogy. But it goes beyond that, because we witness how the bully can get a taste of his own medicine. The victim can become the perpetrator. Taking justice into your own hands may sometimes redefine the boundaries of what is permissible, especially when the person is carrying a baggage of unresolved fragilities. Therefore, making Linda and Bradley transition from an office space to a jungle setting, rewrites the rules of how people perceive and relate to each other. The island becomes a third protagonist of the story, as it influences the moods and conduct of Linda and Bradley. The beauty of the film is that it does not create a sharp distinction between who is right or wrong: behaviours change as the circumstances evolve.
The survival condition that afflicts the protagonists is quite similar to the one portrayed in the 1974 film directed by Lina Wertmüller, Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August, and its remake 2002 remake directed by Guy Ritchie Swept Away. In the case of Send Help, the roles are reversed: the female character played by Rachel McAdams is the one who was belittled socially by the male counterpart, but proves to be determining for the survival on the deserted island. The film also evokes some elements of the 1989 film The War of the Roses, when it comes to the battle of the sexes expressed with gory brutality.
Furthermore, Send Help has rightly been described as Cast Away meets Misery in terms of the suspenseful denouement. It could also be seen as the adult version of Lord of the Flies, considering how the disastrous attempts to stay alive in a primordial environment causes the shipwrecked to descend into savagery. In fact, the true struggle is not having to deal with the forces of nature, but rather the social roles constructed by human society that affect the power games of our species.
Final Grade: A
Photos credits: Disney