A good promotional campaign can make or break a film. The expectant viewer holds out for the film to live up to its promise. An ominous sign for a film is an outstanding trailer that sells itself by featuring the most intense sequence in the film within the trailer. This heightens the expectations exponentially. The higher the expectations going in, the harder it is to meet them. The promise is that what was viewed was only an appetizer. That’s the tricky spot Send Help finds itself in.
Promises, Promises
High stakes, survivalist films that run on that slow-burn intensity that builds with every act—it’s my kind of thing. But the first 15 minutes of any film are crucial. It gives the nudge to either pack it up or lean in.
With survival movies, that opening stretch is all about meeting the characters, understanding how they do or do not relate. We need to be grounded, prodded to engage further in the events that lead us to planting in our seats. The overwhelming objective of survival films is to answer the questions of whether the characters will or will not survive and why we care either way.
Unraveling: Thread by Thread
In the setup, we are introduced to our protagonist (Linda Liddle/Rachel McAdams). She is uncomfortably awkward and a bit eccentric. But that does not diminish her competence. In fact, her performance is well noted. It is her history with the company that fuels her expectations of climbing the corporate ladder. But her hopes fall through the cracks when the new manager (Bradley Preston/Dylan O’Brien)—her man crush and instant nemesis—arrives. His dislike for her is glaring; he’s obsessed with pushing her out.
That office tension spills right onto a business flight. She’s stuck with other male colleagues and Bradley. Things get messy when the group finds a video of Linda auditioning for Survivor. She’s mocked and humiliated. The tension is high, but given what we know, it will not likely amount to anything. From this point, Linda has proved to be a pushover. That is, until a twist of fate that lands the two, Linda and Bradley, stranded.
While logically, this might happen if a plane crashed, it’s simply inorganic in this context. It’s over-expected. The whole scene feels rushed, underscoring that it is obviously a setup to move the narrative forward. We need to get them where the action happens, thus the crash
Down With The Plane!
Once marooned, the story shifts rapidly. Bradley is put in a position to be entirely dependent on his foe. Why? Because, surprise—she’s a wilderness savant, a clue we were supposed to pick up during the Survivor video excerpt.
This is a stretch, given she’s spent eight years in corporate finance. When did she dedicate time to perfecting her survival skills? She is a next-level survivalist. Given her earlier demeanor, there is no way to believe that this was even her. The shift is too extreme.
Then the real twist hits, and it’s predictable and baffling. She becomes a raging, obsessive lunatic. Linda is now the antagonal force. But her obsession doesn’t track. Why would someone who once aimed for TV glory and anchored plans to move up the corporate ladder throw them away at this chance catastrophe? Why would she choose to lose all sanity over being shipwrecked with her impudent manager, who has a volatile and open disdain for her?
The shift felt forced, not earned. From there, the movie deflates. The manager has zero survival instincts, which just isn’t believable. Her erratic decision-making makes one think there is no way she is a survivalist. She has instincts but is nil in the common sense department.
Taking a Wider Angle
The chemistry between the two leads is not great at all. At the midpoint, it really didn’t matter if either survived, as they were both insufferable. The lead actress works hard to sell both versions of her character—office worker and island warrior—but the script doesn’t back her up. She overdramatizes both, and neither feels believable. There were a couple of genuine thrills and a few unexpected turns, but by the final act, the story just couldn’t hold itself together.
Final Take
So, what’s the verdict? Send Help is popcorn fare. It’s more hype than substance, more bark than bite.
Uncut Diamonds 