A Perfect Getaway (*)
Directed by: David Twohy Starring: Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich, Timothy Oliphant, Kiele Sanchez, Chris Hemsworth, Marley Shelton
Seen: January 13th 2010
* Out of ****
There are two types of twists being written into movie plots, and I’m not a fan of the one used in A Perfect Getaway. There is a clear line dividing smart writing (as in Fight Club – the viewer learns the truth with the lead character – and it remains a mind-bender), and wilful deception on the part of the writer – lying to your audience to get a supposed kick out of delivering a so-called twist.
A Perfect Getaway is such a movie – with the twist requiring almost 10 minutes (maybe exaggerating a bit) of black-and-white exposition scenes to explain how it could have happened as it is portrayed on screen. The lead characters are so inconsistent that plausibility just flies out the window, across the street, and then proceeds to get shot multiple times; with a shotgun. Once the twist becomes evident it’s hard not to wonder about what these characters were doing a mere 10 minutes ago (before the extremely long-winded black-and-white exposition).
Cliff and Cydney Anderson (Zahn and Jovovich) are on honeymoon in stunning Hawaii, on a hiking trail to a beautiful secluded beach. En route to the starting point of this trail – they meet Kale (Hemsworth) and Cleo (Shelton), a suspicious-looking couple who remind of hippies and serial killers all-in-one. A while after starting the trail they meet the confident and big-talking Nick (Oliphant), who regales them with stories of his heroism in the war after hearing Cliff is a screenwriter – obviously trying to get his story made into a movie. It is here that things start to go wrong with the movie, as their discussion turns to the big twist in the second act and the red herrings thrown into a story, which already starts you thinking this movie is going to try and be extremely clever – so clever in fact that the director will be grinding your face in this cleverness by the time the final credits start rolling. I was mostly just nauseated by the ridiculous nature of the “big twist”.
Nick lets Cliff and Cydney tag along and the three end up at a secluded waterfall where Gina (Sanchez) is lying naked on a float on the water (nothing explicit is shown – but we now know these characters are also not quite right in the head...). When Cliff tries to get to higher ground to get cell-phone signal to find out more about some recent murders in Hawaii – he runs into Kale and Cleo – who again turn the tables on the who-looks-crazy-enough-to-be-the-killers-now stakes. With all the characters now introduced, the “intrigue” unfolds and the twist is revealed when one character spots something irregular.
A Perfect Getaway ruined my day (and is an early contender to top my 2010 Bottom 10 list) – I was simply not in the mood for anything after it, except maybe heavy drinking. Not even the beautifully filmed Hawaiian mountains, jungle, and beaches could sway me (those only serve to lift the movie’s rating to one star). I found A Perfect Getaway to be a writer’s desperately last grasp attempt at writing something of which no-one will ever guess the twist – by misleading and misguiding the viewer. Whatever happened to smart writing instead?
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