Weaving manages to make Grace a believable character, genuinely in love with O'Brien's somewhat hapless Alex, and unwilling to go down without a fight. Some of her resourcefulness is rather jaw-dropping, as is a particularly uproarious sweary rant. MacDowell lends a bit of glamour to her role, exuding wit and compassion, both of which feel just a bit unhinged. Brody is solid as a relatively complex guy who's understandably dubious about his own family, while Levesque gets the scene-stealing role as his ice-queen wife. And Guadagni is flat-out hilarious.

While the premise sets up some intriguing thematic elements relating to privilege and tradition, the script and filmmaking continually opt for laughs instead. Even the extreme gore is designed to make the audience squirm with delight, often simply because it's so random. So while this low-brow approach is entertaining, it's missing a trick to make things even more punchy by actually being scary while grappling with topics that are already sitting here unexplored.

themes, language, violence

16.Sep.19

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