Clip It: Each day, Jon Davis looks at the world of trailers, featurettes and clips and puts it all in perspective.
This movie is exactly what I imagine it's like for people who are in the middle of their lives and don't have kids. They have cocktail parties. They have spotless apartments. They have the time and inclination to fake their own death and start over again.
I don't plan on seeing this movie. Maybe I'm jealous that Michael Shannon's character has an amazing apartment. Seriously. I don't get why he'd ever consider moving with his new, young wife to California. Dump the wife before she dumps you and keep the apartment, Michael Shannon! No one in this movie is going to give him this advice, especially not his birthday guests, who look like an icky combination of grad students and professors. But everything changes when his previously missing ex girlfriend reappears under a different name – Rachel Weisz with a terrible American accent – to interrupt his fancy dancy birthday celebration. I would think the whole purpose of faking your own death is to AVOID these kinds of dinner soirees.
I can't tell you how much these people already annoy me. It reminds me of some people I would occasionally run into when I lived in NYC. You know their deal. Way too put together. So much so that you kind of lose interest in what's under the facade. That's what I'm seeing here. And it seems extra annoying that Rachel Weisz spends half the movie patting herself on the back for changing identities and being so mysterious. She's not enigmatic as much as she's a red flag. When people come into your life with the attitude of, “Hey, I bet you can't handle me,” your response should be, “You're right, I can't, now go away so I can celebrate my birthday like it's a national holiday. By the way, I'm 42.”
Let's avoid this one if we can.