A PERFECT GETAWAY (Major Spoilers)

Dir. David Twohy USA 2009

"That would be a hell of a second act twist, though."

(Quick note regarding Boardwalk Empire: I've abandoned my original plan to review every episode since it seems like the quality of the show will remain constant and I don't want the reviews to get repetitive. I'll probably do another one when the first season ends. Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones will definitely get reviews for each episode since I'll have a lot to say about comparisons between the show and the source material.)

OK, so, A Perfect Getaway. This movie came out late last summer to little critical or box-office fanfare and was pretty quickly forgotten. I mostly wanted to see it based on the strength of the cast (specifically Steve Zahn, Mila Jovovich and Timothy Olyphant) and the director (who made one of my favorite sci-fi/horror flicks ever, Pitch Black, as well as Below, which I reviewed over the summer). And while I did enjoy this movie, it's pretty tough to discuss without giving away the ending. So I'm going to do what I did for The Book Of Eli and stay spoiler-free for as long as possible before leaving some space and discussing the ending. Sound good? Good.

The film stars Steve Zahn and Mila Jovovich as Cliff and Cydney, a pair of newlyweds who are spending their honeymoon hiking on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. While on a lengthy, multi-day hike to a remote beach, the couple hears news of the brutal murder of another newlywed couple on the main island, apparently perpetrated by a man and a woman. They then encounter two couples, Kale and Cleo (Chris Helmsworth and Mary Shelton), two white-trash hippies and Nick and Gina (Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez), a pair of intense, but likable outdoorsy types. As they trek deeper into the wilderness, Cliff and Cydney being to suspect that one of the two couples may be responsible for the murders and that they might be next. DUN DUN DUN!

If this sounds like a B-movie thriller, that's because that's exactly what it is, albeit a beautifully shot one. Twohy milks the scenery for all its worth and although I didn't watch this on Blu-Ray I expect that it'll pop right off the screen if you do. The film is well-paced, building characters and tension slowly for the first two-thirds before hitting the gas and not letting up toward the end. The acting is surprisingly good for this type of film, with Steve Zahn and Timothy Olyphant turning in their usual great performances. As an alpha-male former soldier Nick, Olyphant gets to unleash the affably threatening persona that characterized his early work in Go and The Girl Next Door (yes, I've seen that and it's surprisingly not terrible). He seems to only get cast as stoic badasses nowadays, so it's nice to see him turned up to 11 again. I was more surprised by the female leads in the film, who I wasn't expecting much from. Mila Jovovich has kind of fallen into a rut over the past few years (although I guess it's making her money) as a beautiful but bland action star in crap like Ultraviolet and all the Resident Evil movies. Here, playing a normal down-to-earth character, she displays a naturalness and vulnerability that makes me wish she'd take dramatically challenging roles more often. And Kiele Sanchez, who played one of the two most hated characters on Lost, makes me believe she too has been hampered by bad material in the past, showing a lot of personality and enthusiasm in this film.

Despite having better characterization and directing that a film of this type deserves, the movie isn't without its problems. Steve Zahn's character being a screenwriter provides a lazy short-cut for Twohy, allowing the characters to have entire discussions about red herrings and plot twists in films which, depending on how meta you like your movies, may come off as annoying. And despite nicely balancing some pretty broad tonal shifts for much of its running time, there is one scene about halfway through the film that just...goes to a really weird place without much warning and feels completely divorced from the rest of the film (although it does pay of story-wise by the end).

Speaking of the ending, it's time to talk about that. I hate giving away endings, so if you haven't seen this movie and it seems at all interesting from what I've written so far, I'd reccommend checking it out before you read on. It will definitely be more enjoyable going in blind, but I understand if you don't. There won't be any jump back after the spoilers, so if you don't want to read any further you can jump off here. Bye.

Hi. So about halfway through the film, Zahn and Jovovich's characters have been sticking with Olyphant and Sanchez's characters, despite their suspicions, mostly because the third hippie couple are way creepier and a bit more threatening. When they get arrested by the police, it seems pretty obvious that Olyphant and Sanchez are going to be the killers. Then, when the two couples alone on an isolated beach, Sanchez realizes that Zahn and Jovovich are in fact the killers. We are then treated to a ten minute flashback which shows us that Cliff and Cyndey are a Mickey-and-Mallory-style sociopathic couple who murder other couples and assume their identities in order to live an infinite number of lives.

In retrospect, if I had been thinking harder while I was watching the film, I would have seen this coming, despite it being totally bugfuck nuts. I didn't think the movie would be particularly challenging when I sat down to watch it and Olyphant and Sanchez being the killers seemed like the obvious outcome, which I was willing to forgive since the rest of the movie was so well done. While their are clues placed along the way that could allow you to figure this out, Twohy cheats a bit by having Cliff and Cyndey remain in character while they are alone with each other, which cause the viewer to eliminate them as suspects from the get-go. This is later explained (or rather, the explaination is implied) by the idea that they are insane method actors who completely "become" the people they kill, but it still feels pretty cheap. Basically, if you think this is the most retarded thing ever, it'll probably ruin the movie for you, but if you can run with it (which I was able to do, more or less) it makes for a pretty nifty twist and allows for a breathless final twenty minutes where your character allegiances are turned on their head.

The twist also allows for a few other positives. I've never seen Steve Zahn play a balls-to-the-wall villain before and he's pretty goddamn good at it. More importantly, in my case anyway, it allowed me to root for the characters that I had liked best all along. Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez (particularly the former) are so badass and so charming, that I found myself regretting the fact that they were going to end up being the killers as I watched the first three quarters of the film. When they were suddenly revealed to be the potential victims in the final act, I was happy to remain in their corner as they suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives. And although the movie could have been even more subversive by having the protagonists you've been following the entire time come out on top, I won't really blame them for playing it a little safe.

Ultimately (and somewhat unfortunately) the twist will probably be the deciding factor as far as your opinion on this film goes. I think it goes all the way from audacious through retarded and back to awesome. And I didn't see it coming. Which is really what you want out of a twist in the end.

UP NEXT: A Chris Evans double feature, oddly enough. It just kind of worked out that way. Cellular and Push, two apparently middling thrillers. Lets hope for the best.