Considering the creek at the bottom of our neighborhood was too shallow to support their kind and the largest body of water in our area -- the James River -- was fouled with Kepone and thus made catching them illegal for a time, I never grew up knowing much about fish. While we had salmon, tuna and such for meals, I wasn't great at identifying such aquatic critters in pre-dinner mode.
I'm better at that now, but the easiest for me to spot are the herrings. No, not the small oily ones, but those that appear with the hue of which the wavelengths approximately measure 630 to 750 nanometers. Yes, I'm talking about red herrings, and having seen more movies than one can stuff inside a public aquarium, they're usually fairly easy to pick out.
That's certainly the case in "A Perfect Getaway," but that's not just because of said experience. Instead, it's that writer/director David Twohy purposefully points out that they'll be present in his latest offering, a twisty suspense thriller.
Okay, there aren't any flashing onscreen titles that indicate when they're present. However, the filmmaker does reveal one of his main characters as a screenplay writer, and related talk eventually gets around to discussing the various aspects of that storytelling medium including, you guessed it, said herrings (mistakenly called red snappers by another).
Although current, aspiring and once wishful screenwriters (I'm raising my hand for the latter) often enjoy films that reference the industry from a technical, creative and/or business standpoint, such obvious references run the risk of coming off as too cheeky and cocky. It's as if they're challenging the viewer to spot those purposeful distractions and figure out the truth before it's finally revealed.
While that does turn said audience members into more proactive viewers, it also opens the film to far greater scrutiny of the fine details. And in doing so, it almost always disengages the viewer to the point that any potential emotional investment ends up muted at best or completely wiped clean for some.
The performances are generally good, despite and/or because of some of the exaggerated characterizations and/or eventual revelations. The best by far doesn't come from the person most will be expecting -- the usually zany Steve Zahn, but rather Timothy Olyphant who often brings a certain off-kilter quality to his characters that usually benefits them and the films in which they appear. That's true here, and although his might be slathered in red herring oil, the fun he has with the character -- especially as the story unfolds -- is fairly infectious.
The result of all that is a mixed bag, with some parts working and others not really amounting to much. Any semblance of true suspense and/or horror is pretty much absent., and since we figure what we're seeing isn't necessarily the truth, the big third act surprise isn't, well, terribly unexpected. Yet, as the story progresses and the herrings keep piling up in increasingly preposterous ways, the film ends up being surprisingly entertaining, albeit in a guilty pleasure fashion.
That's especially true after some far too long flashback sequences -- designed not only to explain the big switcheroo but also refocus our empathy alliances -- threaten to let all of the over-heated air out of the bag. Once Twohy dispenses with that, the film gears back up again to deliriously goofy heights as various previously introduced and touched upon character attributes come to full fruition.
It's far from perfect -- the big explanatory element might make sense, but is a little too far-fetched to truly believe it -- but if viewed with an equally receptive audience, the offering becomes something of an over-the-top hoot to watch and experience with others.
That was also the case with the recently released "Orphan" and a bit earlier, "Drag Me to Hell," and like those films it's hard to say how they'll play when viewed in solo watcher mode. Whatever the case, all three flicks share a certain "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" tinge to the normal trappings of their genres.
While that doesn't make this film a classic by any means, it does make it a bit more enjoyable than had it played out in standard rote fashion. "A Perfect Getaway" rates as a 5 out of 10 as a viewed-in-the-theater experience, but could drop a point or so once it arrives on home video without the accompanying and appreciative viewing audience.
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