Written by: Damian Shannon & Mark Swift
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Edyll Ismail, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Dennis Haysbert
Rating: [3.5/5]
Everyone has their own set of skills that allow them to succeed in their own lives and have use in their personal and professional arenas. Some skills have narrower transferability, which gets put to the test in the wickedly fun Send Help. A film all about the true survival skills one must obtain and how quickly the social hierarchy can flip and change a pre-existing power dynamic.
Always the good employee doing her part, Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) has put in her time as a strategist for the financial management company she works for. With the expectation of a promotion in the near future getting thwarted by the rise of the new nepo CEO, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), who opts to gift it to his buddy, Linda is certainly not pleased. While on a work flight where a crash landing leaves Linda and Bradley on a remote island, suddenly the dynamic between them begins to shift.
Humans love a good hierarchical system where everyone knows their place in relation to the other person. We see this clearly defined in the workplace with a line of authority from the lowliest person to the CEO. While we may love to believe in a meritocracy where each of these places on the ladder lies in the order that makes sense due to experience and value, we all know that’s not the case. In Linda’s scenario, she obviously has the experience to receive the promotion she desired but never stood a chance with the new CEO, who only has this position because of his father, opting to gift it to another person for the very reason he received his. These rules can exist in the workplace, but everything changes when the setting changes from corner offices and fluorescent lights to the harsh conditions of a remote island, making for some of the delicious power balance shifts this film offers.
Everything leading up to the inciting incident set up this shift. Linda, an avid fan and hopeful participant of the TV series “Survivor,” has ensured a level of preparedness for the possibility of needing to survive in this scenario. As you can imagine, Bradley did not have the same level of preparedness. Therefore, we see the comedy of Bradley continuing to try and boss Linda around even with the change in circumstances, but he quickly learns that a different environment does not necessarily signify that the social order he’s accustomed to will remain the same. Linda’s skillset now puts her in the position of power, and as one can imagine, this transition does not go so well.
This battle of societal positioning dominates the majority of the film as Bradley comes to grips with the reality of his current situation and the likelihood of it ever changing. Linda would love to maintain the status quo while Bradley most likely prefers a return to his normal way of life and the power he holds there. Given Sam Raimi sits in the director’s chair of this feature, you can imagine he has much more he wants to play with, especially presenting this struggle as a physical and violent one where the dam will eventually break. Two individuals who’ve lived under the auspice of entrenched societal norms can only go so long under this new order before something inevitably goes wrong. This film provided every bit of that entertainment as we experienced this through both Linda and Dylan’s experiences. One sees it as a great new experience, while a living nightmare for the other.
The key ingredient to the success of this film lies in the lead performance given by Rachel McAdams. It’s comical to me in the beginning of the film how much they attempt to make her anything other than attractive, which we can play along with for only so long. McAdams, when given the opportunity to shine, always delivers incredible work, and her teaming up with Sam Raimi in this feature led to such a delicious experience for us all. She chews up the scenery and makes it so that even in the moments where the character ebbs and flows into villain territory, we never lose sight of what’s at stake for her. A delight in every way, one can never tire of watching McAdams do her thing when on the big screen.
Entertaining from beginning to end, Send Help does everything much better than other films attempting this premise. Unlike the Triangle of Sadness, which exists to simply display the cleverness of the director, this feature comes with real bite and presents this reversal of power dynamics in a much more compelling manner. It brings plenty of comedy and horrifying imagery, as one would expect when Sam Raimi gets the opportunity to let loose and do what he does best and we all benefit from it.
Films with Josh 
