A bride's wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to participate in a terrifying game. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett direct Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Henry Czerny, among others.
Opening in 1989, inside the Le Domas mansion, brothers Daniel (Etienne Kellici) and Alex (Chase Churchill) run while being followed by a man. Daniel hides Alex in a closet before being approached by the man, Charles (Andrew Anthony), the new husband of the children's aunt, Helene (Elana Dunkelman). Charles begs Daniel to help him, as he has just been wounded and is being hunted. Instead, Daniel alerts the rest of his family to Charles' presence. Helene tries to save her husband, but the family drags Charles into a room to his grisly fate.
30 years later
Alex (now played by Mark O'Brien) is getting married to a woman named Grace (Samara Weaving). She is nervous but eager to join her family's gaming "domain," which is the reason they gained their enormous wealth. The couple goes to a photo shoot before the ceremony, along with other members of Alex's family. Daniel (now played by Adam Brody) is joined by his wife Charity (Elyse Levesque), who is open about the fact that she only married Daniel for his family's money. Her father Tony (Henry Czerny) visibly disapproves of Grace, but not as much as Helene (now played by Nicky Guadagni), who shoots Grace a murderous look. More approving is Alex and Daniel's mother, Becky (Andie MacDowell), who tells Grace that only Alex's opinion matters. Moments later, everyone gathers for the ceremony,
Screenshot of the movie
Later, Grace and Alex are trying to be intimate, but are interrupted by Helene, who reminds Alex that he needs to join the family for something. Alex then explains to Grace that, according to tradition, with each new addition to the Le Domas family, she has to join the family for a midnight game. Continue reading.Synopsis at IMBd.
I'm going to be dividing this review between the positive and the negative. What has to do with the positive: obviously I love the story, I love this mix of elements with some of the mystery genre, something very Agatha Christie-like; this having a group of characters in a mansion, at night and something sinister starts to happen, which obviously what has to do with the mix of this with the black comedy is making us evoke something like The Breakfast Club that great movie from the 80s. Obviously there's a big reference on that side, although there's not so much mystery when it comes to who the good guys and the bad guys are, and that's clear from the beginning, mixing with what is something of a manhunt, (which we've seen in things like The Purge) and with a home invasion.
Ready or Not has stuff from a romantic comedy, that went wrong and that seems to me to be a great move to have something that may be connecting a lot of people, because we can all relate to that awkward, or tense, going either to meet your partner's relatives, or to have some kind of relationship a little bit closer, a question of expectations and pressure, and all that, and especially doing this on this girl's wedding day seems to me to go very well to serve as a contrast. A day that should be perfect, idyllic, fairytale-like, turns into a nightmare.
Screenshot of the movie
Speaking of contrasts, from the very sophisticated to this great barbarism, this very primitive thing is a contrast that works so well for example in the John Wick franchise, obviously used in a different way, with a very casual script that brings a lot of freshness, not only to the theme of violence, but at the time of the dialogues, which can insult, in the R rating seems to me that fits well with all this, with a tremendously dynamic execution.
The film begins without wasting time, already on the day of this wedding the characters are being introduced, things are happening in a fairly agile way, and at the end of the day it seems to me a great success that the film can start in this strong way and close with a really high level, something that is not very easy to achieve and that maintains from beginning to end this tremendously playful tone, again mixing a little what is tension and horror with some comedy. The film knows exactly what it is, at no point taking itself too seriously, with very visceral violence, with mostly practical effects that actually work very well.
Screenshot of the movie
The negative part, as I said before, this balance of comedy with thriller and all that, at times goes too much to the side of comedy. This affects a little to some scenes of tension or danger, because especially the hunters of the film are shown in a very incompetent way, looking for the smile, the laugh, which would not be a negative if this level of humor was kept high from beginning to end, and it seems to me that it is not so. A great start and great ending, but, in the middle of the movie it seems to me that it stagnates a little bit, to the point that it feels like we are stretching this concept, although the movie ends up being short, 1 hour 35 minutes. But I felt like we were on a run that wasn't really moving the story forward, giving us more information about the characters or what was going on.
To sum it up, a great concept executed with style, personality, offering a bloody and fun cat and mouse game. I recommend you watch it, and enjoy the experience until the credits roll.
Official Trailer [HD]
SOURCES
Images taken from lascosasdejuampa1.blogspot.com published by Juan Pablo, of free use for personal or commercial purposes.Image 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image taken from pixabay.comImage 5Image 6Images used in the cover taken from:Screenshot taken from IMDbScreenshot taken from WikipediaAll designs were created in PowerPoint.
