Director: Charlie McDowell
Starring: Jason Segel, Lily Collins, Jesse Plemons
Running Time: 92 minutes
Synopsis: A burglar (Jason Segel) rummaging through a high-end vacation home in the California desert is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the owners, a husband (Jesse Plemons) and wife (Lily Collins) couple. The husband is a wealthy technology capitalist, the wife runs his charity organizations, and now the burglar holds them hostage and tries to extract a large sum of cash.
What Works Well: The single location benefits from the rustic beauty of a dream vacation home nestled in a desert hosting orange groves. The restless music carries a dynamic edge, and all three central performances are committed to the quirkiness of the premise.
What Does Not Work As Well: An idea in search of a movie, this chamber thriller is probably more suited to the stage. Despite the short running length, the cinematic execution is flabby and gets caught in long stretches of irrelevant talkiness and silent pauses, the script bypassing dramatic momentum by only nibbling at character backgrounds. The ending is therefore devoid of substance and defaults to shock for shock's sake, decoupled from coherence.
Key Quote:
Burglar: I want $150,000.
Husband: Do you think that's enough?
Wife: Yeah, I think you're probably gonna want more than that.
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