Review – ‘A Perfect Getaway’ (2009)

For a film with the uninspired title of ‘A Perfect Getaway’ of which the film is most certainly not, in a good way, it is a surprisingly well constructed thriller which did actually have me guessing for a good portion of the film. The film suffers slightly in the third act once all is revealed, and adopts a strange visual style that detracts from the previous tension that was built up, but that tension is worth watching the film alone.

The film follows a newlywed couple, Cliff and Cydney as they travel to Hawaii for their honeymoon. Their trip takes a turn once they discover that two psychopaths are killing people on the island. On their travels they meet Nick and Gina, which brings tension to the group.

Milla Jovovich and Steve Zahn play the titular couple and both do a good job of portraying a couple, especially Steve Zahn, who is mostly involved in comedies so it’s great to see him in a serious role. Zahn does a realistic portrayal of someone who is out of his depth, and not used to the unpredictable nature of the situation. Timothy Olyphant is perhaps the star of the show playing Nick, a veteran of the Iraq war, who is extremely comfortable and has no qualms with hunting for his own food, and showing off his muscles.

The film does a great job at subverting expectations, without spoiling what happens, using our knowledge of character archetypes to make presumptions about the plot and how the film will progress. I will say that once the film evolves into its third act, there is a strange transition into action with unusually rapid editing and a visual style that has not been present in the previous hour and 20 minutes, which was jarring.

Seeing the vibrant colours of the jungle is great to see, and the location they chose to shoot in does a great job at portraying this landscape and goes off some great Cannibal Holocaust vibes in terms of the brutality of the environment towards the characters.

I watched this film with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised but how it dealt with tension and character development.

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