A Perfect Getaway
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
A Perfect Getaway is the new thriller from David Twohy starring Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez. Twohy first showed up on my radar years ago when I read his scrapped Alien 3 script, but it was Pitch Black that made him a writer/director to follow. His World War II horror film, Below, reinforced that idea, but then he made The Chronicles of Riddick – a perfectly useless film – and I began to doubt his abilities. Learning that Milla Jovovich was attached to this project only added to this doubt because she has consistently disappointed as an actress in (almost) every single film of her career. Her roles as the “perfect” girl in The Fifth Element and the punk rocker in Dummy are the only exceptions. (The stigma of the Resident Evil series and Ultraviolet, however, can never be erased – or forgotten – and I’m almost embarrassed that I had a crush on her at one time. And, once again, I digress.)
One of the characters in A Perfect Getaway is a writer, which causes the great side effect of the story itself becoming a little self-referential. (One person they pass on the trail even warns that there are “plenty of twists and turns ahead.”) Of course, when your story is meta and the characters are talking about “red snappers” and the second act twist you know that the story is going to try to do the unexpected. (The rest of this paragraph doesn’t include any blatant spoilers, but it does give you enough information to potentially be spoileriffic: please proceed at your own risk.) So, yes, there’s a second act twist – and it’s precisely the one you should be expecting – except for the fact that the movie has purposefully been feeding you out-of-context information to throw you off. This film comes dangerously close to being an example of (what I’ve decided to call) “liar cinema,” – where the filmmakers basically deceive the audience – and, while the story doesn’t actually lie, it does kinda seem like a trick. High Tension and Shrooms – the two worst offenders of liar cinema – are transgressive and shameless in the way that they lie to their audiences, but, luckily, A Perfect Getaway is much smarter than that. The only problem is that Twohy might have made it too smart for its own good. There will undoubtedly be some 
people that will feel betrayed by the misdirection in this film, but, ironically, a second viewing would probably diminish those feelings.
- Score
- 6/10
As it turns out, my fears were pointless this time and neither Milla nor Twohy prove to be disappointing in this film. In addition, the rest of the cast are perfect in their respective roles… though it would have been nice if the first couple to exit the story had a bit more screen time. (One other nitpick: when three of your characters go “clotheless” to swim near a waterfall, it is considered cheating to later cut to them already getting dressed… especially when one of the actresses clearly has no reservations about appearing onscreen sans clothing.) Also, The dynamic editing of Tracy Adams during one of the climax scenes earned her a spot on my watchlist…I’m looking forward to some cool stuff from her in the future. A Perfect Getaway may not be a perfect movie, but it is a fun ride… as long as you watch out for “red snappers” and that second act twist.
