“We’re not in the office anymore.”
Poor Rachel McAdams. Maybe her characters just shouldn’t get on airplanes. In 2005, Wes Craven cast the actress as a hotel manager who is targeted by an assassin on a late-night cross-country flight in the heart-pounding thriller Red Eye. This time around, she’s teamed up with another horror directing icon, Sam Raimi, for Send Help, where she once again boards a flight that plunges her into a thrilling, life-threatening situation. Actually, maybe her characters should continue to board planes. When they do, they flourish, becoming the kinds of heroines that are always a pleasure to see on the big screen. The one McAdams brings to life here is a woman full of gumption who is also driven by sheer instinct. Other than Send Help being just a really exhilarating movie, it proves that the thriller genre is the one where McAdams is at possibly her absolute best.
In Send Help, data strategist Linda (McAdams) is a dutiful and undervalued employee for a large corporation. Although she was promised a promotion by the company’s CEO before his death, his inexperienced son/Linda’s new boss, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), passes her over in favor of one of her inexperienced male colleagues. Recognizing how valuable Linda is to the company, however, Bradley invites her to join a planned business trip to Bangkok to assist in a company merger. When the plane ends up crashing, killing everyone on board except for Linda and Bradley, the two find themselves stranded on an island where Linda’s survivalist nature allows her to turn the tables on her obnoxious boss.
Raimi’s last two outings as a director were not exactly in his wheelhouse, although he certainly had more fun with Doctor Strange than he did with the Wizard of Oz. Send Help represents a return to form for the filmmaker, especially with the brand of humor that flows through it. Linda’s office existence is played for some great awkward moments, and the chaotic airplane descent is thankfully hilarious and somewhat absurd. There’s also the laugh-out-loud scene where we see Linda kill a wild boar for food that’s very prolonged, very bloody, and very Raimi. The movie’s humor extends to the characters as well. We see Linda and Bradley take on a sort of Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy-like interplay in the midst of their predicament that draws on her effortless survival skills and his ineptness at existing outside of his privileged bubble. In any other scenario, this could very well have the beginnings of a worthwhile romantic comedy. Raimi also manages to top things off with a third-act twist that’s just too much fun to behold and will surely draw huge laughs from the audience.
But Send Help is first and foremost a thriller, and an effective one thanks to Raimi’s skilled hand. While I’m not the biggest fan of comparing titles to one another, it’s hard not to be reminded of the underrated 2009 thriller A Perfect Getaway. Not since then has an island setting been used to the best of its abilities as a landscape of fear, dread, and the best kind of suspense. The bulk of said suspense is the cat-and-mouse dynamics that turn up, especially as Bradley discovers that he no longer has the upper hand. The occurrence of certain twists suggests that Linda’s grip on her sanity may be slipping, and that it’s a little questionable as to who is the cat and who is the mouse. The entire premise and execution almost mirror an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode due to the movie’s level of irony, not to mention an ending that fits so perfectly into that show’s kind of storytelling. Send Help isn’t without its plot devices, most of which typically work. But the real pleasure is in watching this battle of wills take place between these two desperate and determined people. Regardless of their vastly different skill sets, both Linda and Bradley are formidable opponents, proving that this is anyone’s game.
Both leads are so wonderfully keyed into the heightened reality of the script, which allows them to just go to town with both their characters. O’Brien surprises with his ability to take all of the elements of toxic masculinity and privileged entitlement to create a true reptile of a man, which he clearly relishes playing. He is great fun to watch. But there’s no question whatsoever that this is McAdams’ show, and she knows it. The actress takes Linda through a journey that shows her coming into her own. She charts this with a confidence that works well with the empathy she gives the character. McAdams also makes sure that Linda’s foray into a newly-discovered unhinged side is carefully measured and revealed in ways that make her performance only more delicious.
Obviously, there is some social commentary here regarding women in the workplace. But Send Help doesn’t delve into the issue through some kind of extended monologue. Yet the plight of the female underdog is still very much felt by showing how little has changed despite the societal strides that have been made over the years. Perhaps Raimi knows that his contribution to the conversation is limited beyond pointing out the universality of the issue and reminding us that the struggle continues to be real. Technology aside, Send Help could’ve been made in any era for this reason alone. The movie’s conclusion also doesn’t pretend to have any answers to what remains a constant fight for acknowledgement and recognition for women in the workplace, except to say that sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
