A PERFECT GETAWAY, NOT SO PERFECT

I'm a huge fan of thrillers. A thriller's what go me my agent. So it doesn't matter if it's a techno-thriller, a paranoid '70s thriller, or a personal, action-oriented thriller like RED EYE (the spec version of which is far superior to the produced film), I tend to be partial to the genre and its films.

PERFECT GETAWAY is a more personal, action-oriented version of the genre. I'd read the spec a few years ago and didn't fully enjoy it for the same reasons the film doesn't entirely work. It tells the story of a honeymooning couple taking a hike in Hawaii. Out on a remote trail with two other couples, they discover that there's a killer couple who made the jump from Honolulu with them. Alone and with no one to rely on, they try to figure out who the killers are and stay alive.

SPOILERS ARE GETTING AWAY WITH ME BELOW





















The biggest problem with the film is that it cheats. There's a pretty big twist -- that the two leads turn out to be the killers and that you've been following and empathizing with the bad guys the entire time. Writer/director Twohy plays fair most of the time, setting up actions and dialogue that work both to drive the story forward and mislead you. But there's one big, dopey patch of dialogue that's completely plays false with the audience. After Tim Olyphant's ex-special forces character returns from bow-hunting bearing a dead goat, and his girlfriend, Gina, skins it, we're treated to a big dialogue scene between Tim Zahn and Milla Jovovich in which they talk about how crazy Tim/Gina are, how the two of them should make an excuse and sneak away, but how they probably can't and just need to make it down the hiking trail to the beach where they'll be safe. This is completely moronic because Tim and Milla are the murderers. They're in no danger from Tim and Gina, no matter how crazy they are. They have no reason to make it to the beach, nor are they "home free" once they get there (the beach is filled with other hikers and far more dangerous to them). In fact, since Zahn and Milla are iced-out serial killers, they're in perfectly fine shape out on a secluded chunk of the trail at night with Tim and Gina -- that offers a far easier, safer place to kill them than the beach (and in fact, when Tim and Milla get to the beach and finally try to kill them, they fuck it up).

Films that rely on twists really only work if two conditions happen. One, the twist has to be something that makes logical sense (Tyler Durden is one aspect of Ed Norton's character's personality; Dr. Malcolm Crowe is dead the entire time in SIXTH SENSE; Darth Vader is Luke's father) and not something that is either painfully obvious (THE VILLAGE is really part of modern times) or moronic (the apes in the new PLANET OF THE APES made it out of the wormhole and back to earth where somehow history played out exactly the same but with an Ape Abe Lincoln). And the twist has to be played fairly -- you can't have it work solely because you play out bullshit versions of a scene (unless you clue the audience in that your narrator is unreliable) -- this is why USUAL SUSPECTS is such a brilliant movie, because you get some clues that Verbal is full of crap, but you don't think that means he's making the whole thing up and is really Keyser Soze. Conversely, this is one of many reasons why TAKING LIVES (caveat -- I worked on the film but didn't write it) doesn't; there's a major scene where Ethan Hawke's character is relating how he killed Kiefer Sutherland's character (whom he frames as the serial killer), which is just Hawke lying; since he's never set up as a liar and not really as the possible serial killer, this is just a cheat. If you play fairly with the audience, then the script usually comes off as intricately crafted and hugely dramatically satisfying. Any of the above examples of films that work prove this, as does MEMENTO. But when you get a film/script with a twist that doesn't, you can feel why (i.e. HAUTE TENSION, a film that works brilliantly for 3/4 of the movie, and then you learn everything you saw is complete and utter bullshit and the killer is one of the girls). Cheats are almost like mini-versions of the hacky old standby "it was all a dream," basically negating what you saw since it couldn't possibly have happened that way (or at least makes no sense that it's shown that way).

A more minor flaw in the film is the cheesy, self-reflexive movie/screenwriting talk. Since Zahn's character poses as a screenwriter and Olyphant's character wants a movie made about his life, the two talk about movies, which comments directly on the action of the film. This would probably work if it was subtle, but instead, we're given really on the nose dialogue about red herrings and one glaringly noticeable bit of throwaway dialogue after the red herring couple is arrested in which a passerby on the trail remarks that "There's plenty of twists and turns ahead." Ugh. This doesn't add anything to the movie. In fact, it takes away from it by being so lame.

There's a beat at the end of the film in which Gina tries to call for help from a remote mountaintop. She can't get a cell signal and is in real trouble. And then a guy from AT&T calls to change her cell service, and she convinces him to call for help. Which arrives in the form of a police helicopter, complete with sharpshooters. Yes, that's right. Our heroine overcomes an obstacle to her survival through blind, convenient luck. That's never a good thing. And something stupid happens with the helicopter. Milla makes it there first, riding along with the cops and telling them to shoot Tim Olyphant. For some reason they believe her, even though she could possibly be the killer. And then she abruptly changes her mind after Gina saves Tim by blocking the shot, and decides to sell out her boyfriend. Which might work if he'd done something in the film (like hitting on Gina) to upset her. But he doesn't. All Twohy gives us is that Zahn can't tell Milla he loves her. Which, considering the fact that they're both meth-addicted spree killers, seems like a minor quibble on her part.

Finally, the script paints itself into a bit of a corner by revealing about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through that our protagonist(s) are really bad guys. It realizes we don't really have anyone to root for. So there's an awkward bit of structural gymnastics interrupting the film's momentum and tension where we go back and see that Olyphant was all set to propose to his girlfriend after all. While this is sweet, it comes in the wrong place. Olyphant's such a good actor that you like him despite the misleads that he's creepy. Twohy should've just made him a little more empathetic despite his possible villainy (e.g. Denzel in TRAINING DAY) and setup the proposal-to-come in advance instead of interrupting the flow of the entire movie. If we didn't like Olyphant (and Gina) by that point, throwing in backstory and setup that should've come earlier won't make us like him now.

So what are we left with? A mostly serviceable thriller that succumbs to its own cleverness and cheats when it doesn't have to. Which makes it slightly better than mediocre instead of solid all the way around.