Film reviews: ‘Send Help’ and ‘Private Life’

‘Send Help’

Directed by Sam Raimi (R)

★★★

“The most purely enjoyable Sam Raimi film in years,” Send Help is a horror-comedy that has “the potential to be timeless,” said Alison Foreman in IndieWire. A “rigorously committed” Rachel McAdams stars as a corporate underling who becomes marooned on a deserted island with her company’s new CEO shortly after the pampered young exec, played by Dylan O’Brien, denied her a promotion. Because O’Brien’s Brady is injured and McAdams’ Linda is far more resourceful, the power balance flips, throwing the pair into a survival drama that’s “ghastly without being grim and morally queasy without being mean.”

But Raimi undermines the movie’s “shrewd satire” because he chooses to “juice everything up with spurious horror flourishes,” said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. Apparently, he’s still playing to fans of his 1981 breakthrough, The Evil Dead, and the eruptions of gore “undermine the film’s believability, turning everything into silliness.” Still, McAdams shines as a dweeb who transforms into a badass survivalist, and “seeing the actress let her freak flag fly is a delight,” said Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter. O’Brien “matches her step for step” as he transforms from “enjoyably hissable” to possibly humbled. Meanwhile, Raimi “attacks the material with a joyous ferocity,” getting gruesome when needed and relishing every plot twist. Send Help does lose steam toward the end. “But the surprising climax, plus an amusing coda, brings it all home.”

‘Private Life’

Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski (R)

★★★

“Jodie Foster can do just about anything,” said Nick Schager in The Daily Beast. In her latest feat, the two-time Oscar winner fills the lead role in a French-language film for the first time and her anxious performance proves to be the movie’s “undisputed highlight.” Foster plays Lilian Steiner, a Paris psychiatrist who begins chasing clues that could prove that the supposed recent suicide of a client was instead murder. But while there’s never much chance that Lilian’s suspicions will pan out and the movie itself “never quite comes together,” Foster’s turn is “more than enough reason to embark on this off-kilter investigation.”

The movie is “slippery to categorize,” said Naveen Kumar in The Washington Post. It toys with being a psychological thriller yet “manages to dwell in uncertainty” as we wonder if Lilian is onto something or losing her marbles. “Still, there’s something less than satisfying about a story that’s peculiar but not exactly funny” and “low-key unsettling but far from provocative.” Foster easily navigates each tone shift, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. She’s also surrounded by strong co-stars, including Virginie Efira as the deceased and Daniel Auteuil as Lilian’s ex-husband, who joins Lilian’s inquiry. Auteuil and Foster “fit together seamlessly, his soft presence working contrapuntally with her sharp edges,” and their pairing both “sweetens the story” and “points to a potential film franchise that I would like to see happen.”