Get Ready to SEND HELP

 

Jeri Jacquin

This week on Digital, including Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango and coming to 4K Ultra HD and DVD from director Sam Raimi and 20^th Century Studios, comes a look at the need to SEND HELP.

Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a corporate strategist who works hard while everyone else takes the credit. Taking each stab at her, the only reason she stays at her job is that the CEO of the company has promised her a promotion. Unfortunately, with the CEO’s passing, his son, the brat Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), has taken the reins. Their first meeting doesn’t go so well, and to make it worse, she learns his position has been given to someone else.

Confronting Preston, he is blunt with her, saying she isn’t the right person for the job. Willing to give her a shot, a trip to Bangkok for a company merger is his way to appease her. The next day, Linda arrives at the airport only to discover that Preston has brought a plane load of his guy friends, leaving her in the back of the plane. Once in the air, she gets to work while the others play. That is, until the plane explodes and sends everyone into the sea below.

Surviving, Linda finds Preston hurt and takes care of him. How does she do that? Linda is a fan of the show Survivor and has learned a thing or two. More than a thing or two as she begins to make their lives a little more comfortable. When Preston wakes up, he almost immediately takes on a superior tone with Linda, reminding her that he is the boss. From that moment on, Linda finds ways to remind Preston that they are no longer in the office and she doesn’t need him to survive.

He, on the other hand…

McAdams as Linda is a woman who has been living a life that has allowed others to use her. Waiting for her time to move up into the job she has worked for, it takes an arrogant son to collapse that dream. Once on the island, she shows that everyone underestimated her. I love that McAdams played this role because it is unlike any other that she has had. She had me laughing and dropping my jaw a few times. There is nothing better than a surprise film that made me sad it was over.

O’Brien as Preston is a bratty, entitled man-child who’s only interested in being rude and dismissive to people, most of all Linda. The roller coaster of being on the island with her, he takes countless shots, only to realize he isn’t the smartest person on the island. O’Brien, taking on the character of Preston, is awesome because he easily pulls off the arrogant boy, and I’m here for it. Even though Linda made me laugh, Preston made me laugh harder in his reactions.

Other cast include Edyll Ismail as Zuri, Xavier Samuel as Donovan Murphy, Chris Pang as Chase, and Dennis Haysbert as Franklin.

Twentieth Century Home Entertainment brings award-winning global product and new entertainment to DVD, Bluray, and Digital HD. Their amazing collection offers fans an opportunity to expand their own home libraries with the best films. To discover what other titles they have, please visit www.20thcenturystudios.com.

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There is over two hours of bonus content that audiences can view to take a deeper dive behind the scenes of Sam Raimi’s twisted survival thriller.

SEND HELP gave me a mixture of WAR OF THE ROSES (1989), MISERY (1990), and CASTAWAY (2000). The best part of that? Those three films are some of my absolute favorites. Writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift went for the brass ring in their writing, from hilarious to shocking to jaw-dropping, and didn’t hide behind guessing. Raimi takes their script and bathes us in every word and every idea that includes shocks and twists.

McAdams and O’Brien hold their own in every single frame of the film once they are on the island together. It is a chance to explore these two characters, and just when it becomes clear who they are, the script is flipped – on us. The clever writing and directing means that SEND HELP is a film that should be enjoyed with a group of friends who are, well, dying to enjoy a good night into the bold, darker side of life.

In the end – she’s from strategy and planning!