Written by: Ethan Coen & Tricia Cooke
Starring: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day
Rating: [2/5]
When an actor and director have a connection leading to success, one should feel good at believing they can continue that streak, especially when navigating within the same genre. If all the ingredients in the stew usually make something delicious, then one should have confidence in repeat success. However, filmmaking is not the same as cooking, given the disappointment in the latest collaboration between Ethan Coen and Margaret Qualley in Honey Dont!, which traverses from intriguing to downright bad.
Known around town as a private investigator not to be crossed, Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley) discovers that a prospective client she recently met with her been found dead. This intrigues her to find out the cause of death and the potential of foul play involved, which leads her squarely to a local church run by the enigmatic Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans).
While evidently receiving a mixed reception, I was a big fan of Ethan Coen’s first foray into solo directing and collaboration with Margaret Qualley in Drive-Away Dolls. It certainly demonstrates which of the Coen brothers brought the general comedy and horniness to their films. If anything, it demonstrated that Coen and Qualley can tell fun stories about the latter operating as a lesbian who finds herself in tricky predicaments. Therefore, Honey, Don’t certainly caught my attention hoping to receive another quality collaboration, but unfortunately we received no such thing seeing as this film takes on this scattershot approach that fails the story.
To talk about the good, we unsurprisingly have a fun performance by Margaret Qualley at the center of it all where she takes on this persona of Honey O’Donahue who click-clacks her way into various settings and has this aura to her. With her sultry voice with filled with wit and general coolness, it proves quite the shame that this film did not work out, as I would 100% see more films centered on this character in all types of settings. Her taking on different cases and a villain of the week would make appointment viewing for me. However, in this particular feature, she does not receive a story befitting the entertaining work she puts forth.
It’s not difficult to pinpoint the issue with this film, which is the central mystery that fails to land a meaningful punch in building any genuine intrigue or ever delivering on it with any substance. Honey’s quest revolves around the murder of a young woman, but the way this film continues down its path takes it down probably the least interesting avenues available given the world and the characters built out within this narrative. That’s the true shame about this movie, we have this town filled with dumb cops, an obviously cult-like church with a sinister leader, an alluring assassin, and people talking with a stylized voice that does not exist in the real world. Good material exists here, but the manner in which it all comes together fails to register in any meaningful manner.
Given the omniscient approach this film takes in allowing the audience to see not just Honey’s transgressions in the film but also the villains, it needs to find a way to produce a reveal that pulls the rug under the audience. The conclusion it arrives at presents such an unsatisfactory plot point that it is mind-boggling why Coen went in that particular direction. However, the film went off the rails long before we arrive at the lackluster conclusion, seeing as this narrative just never quite had the juice necessary to piece together anything remotely captivating even with all the players involved.
There’s truly not much more to say about Honey Dont! as it fails to muster any real traction with its story, it plods along with characters who have fun qualities, but nothing of real substance or sense transpires here. While not having my complete confidence moving forward, I would say that I hope Coen and Qualley take another crack at involving Honey in other investigations, even if not in Bakersfield. There’s plenty here with the dialogue Coen can write and how Qualley continues to impress as a performer that gives me hope another attempt wound render a better result, but this one simply was not it.
Films with Josh 
