Review: A Perfect Getaway

A Perfect Getaway

So let's say you're a couple just days into your honeymoon, backpacking through the lush, beautiful forests in Hawaii. You hear on the news that there have been some brutal murders in the area, and the police are looking for a couple who are the likely suspects. You find yourself meeting up with a rather odd couple: a somewhat looney ex-special ops soldier who claims to be impossible to kill, and his girlfriend who's...well, is pretty handy at gutting wild goats. You also run into yet another couple, a mysterious pair of stragglers with violence in their eyes both for eachother and everyone around them. What do you do? Do you continue on your journey and hope for the best? Or do you turn tail and ruin your time at this glorious island paradise?

Similar to last year's Funny Games, A Perfect Getaway plays with the usual conventions of your typical thriller. Director David Twohy leaves all the relevant clues just outside the frame, allowing a sense of dread to creep in to this gorgeous locale. By the end of the film, Hawaii never looked so gloomy. The script is light and quick paced, never really giving you a chance to adjust to the rapidly changing landscape. There's a bit of a meta commentary going on underneath it all, which for me only made it more intriguing. There are secrets to be revealed here, and for once I found myself completely fooled. It's nice to be reminded that you're just another moviegoer every now and then, just as susceptible to a well placed red herring(or a "red snapper") as the next guy.

Steve Zahn and Milla Jojovich play the happy couple, Cliff and Cydney. Cliff's a screenwriter, the type that looks like he probably only has his wife because he promises to put her in his films. He's a bit of a twitchy, cautious nerd, to be honest. Cydney is a bit more of a blank slate, seemingly content to just be Cliff's wife. The real star of the film is Timothy Olyphant as Nick, the movie quoting ex-military he-man who sounds like he just dropped fresh out of a G.I. Joe PSA. He's the polar opposite of Cliff in every conceivable way, and Twohy does a good job playing up their apparent differences to full effect. Nick claims to be virtually indestructible, and regales Cliff with his elaborate war stories in hopes of getting a movie made about himself. Captain Kirk, Sr. aka Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton tag along as the creepy couple desperately in need of a new tailor and a barber who isn't blind.

Like I said earlier, there are secrets to be revealed in A Perfect Getaway, but I'm not going to spoil them. Someone I saw the film with thinks the big reveal doesn't quite make sense, but she'd be wrong. All I can say is that you need to keep your eyes open, and try not to look at the film with conventional eyes. All will make sense. Good, intense thriller that will absolutely keep you guessing. 7/10