Linda Liddle (McAdams) is capable and diligent in her job in Strategy and Planning at...some company run by Bradley Preston (O'Brien), but she's socially awkward, mousy, and does horrible things like eat tuna at her desk (oh noes! but then, I like tuna). She's passed up for a promotion that Preston gives to his inexperienced, kind of dumb frat buddy (Samuel), but recognizing that he needs her expertise for at least a little while, brings her along on a trip to Thailand to squeeze her for any amount of work he can before shipping her off to a satellite office.
But then the plane goes down and Linda and Bradley wind up the only survivors, stuck together on a beautiful island with no help coming. As it turns out, Linda is a survivalist and actually auditioned to be on Survivor, so she takes to it like a fish to water (except she eats the fish). Bradley continues being an absolute douchecanoe until it becomes obvious that he will die without Linda, whereupon he tries to manipulate her into teaching him stuff, but remains focused on the utterly impractical plan of building a raft and getting home.
Everything kind of spirals from there, and here we enter spoiler territory: It turns out that the island isn't uninhabited, there's a house on it belonging to some billionaire and Linda has been visiting the house to get supplies and freshen up. She's still very much a capable survivalist, of course, but she could have arranged their rescue at any time. Oh, and she straight up murders Bradley's fiancée Zuri (Ismail), who'd been searching the islands in the area with a boat captain she hired (Warakulnukroh) by dropping them off a cliff.
I really like this movie, and I like it all the more because Linda isn't the hero. Yes, she's put upon, underappreciated, passed over, and abused by her boss...but like, she murders two people (possibly three; she claims she allowed her abusive ex-husband to drive drunk and that's how he died, but we have only her word to go on and we know she's capable of both self-delusion and straight-up lying when necessary). There's apparently a lot of debate about who to root for, because if not Linda, then...Bradley? Bradley is a dick in a much more "rich white guy" sense, and it would be easy to think that the worst thing he's ever done is the usual privilege corporate boy's club shit, but then he tries to poison Linda to escape on his stupid raft (that doesn't work).
Most of the effects are solid; not crazy about the CGI boars, but it's pretty minor. The really goopy stuff - Bradley eating a bug, the blood makeup during the end fight - look really good on screen, and it's really nice to see Raimi getting back to original horror stories (first horror movie he'd done since Drag Me to Hell).
Michelle pointed out that, plot-wise, it's got a lot in common with The African Queen, and it's amusing to think of a movie like this getting made with Katherine Hepburn in Rachel McAdams' role.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium-high
Rewatch Value: Medium-high
Next up: Sinners
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