by Julian Wood
Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Fanciosi, Scoot McNairy, Alix West Lefler
Intro:
... well worth seeking out if you can stomach both prolonged tension and eruptions of, er, uncivilised behaviour.
It is an innocent enough kind of thing. You meet people on holiday when you are in an expansive frame of mind, and they seem really nice. But, still, would you want to pursue a friendship outside that space and time? This is the hook for this sometimes-blistering remake of the acclaimed 2022 Scandi thriller of the same title, by James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman in Black)
We open with the holiday sequence where our main couple Ben (Scoot McNairy) and his wife Louise (Mackenzie Davis) are trying to relax and reconnect. Ben is nice but a little timid, Louise is already having doubts about her life with him, but is equally dedicated, in a helicopter parenting kind of way, to their young teen daughter (played by Alix West Lefler)
Then they meet Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Fanciosi) and they bond over the desire to avoid boring Danes (a nice in-joke riffing on the original). Paddy is supremely confident and happy to take over any situation. He is always telling the other couple what they should eat and what experiences they must have. This could be just his larger than life personality or it could be a warning sign. Either way, the shyer couple seem quickly drawn in.
The rest of the action takes place in Paddy and Ciara’s farmhouse in Devon in the UK. As we know from films like Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, isolated west country farmhouses can be a place of siege, and their very isolation is an element in the predicament. The film starts as a psychological thriller, and it takes its sweet time to go to other places. However, it is the strength of the script and, particularly, the mesmerising performance of McAvoy that pins you to your seat. As anyone who has seen his extraordinary turn in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, McAvoy has technical chops. Best known to many perhaps for his role in X-Men, this sees him really having fun with his obvious sense of craft. He is worth the price of the ticket alone, but the film as a whole is a very effective piece. It is well worth seeking out if you can stomach both prolonged tension and eruptions of, er, uncivilised behaviour.
