Windfall

Windfall
Starring Jason Segel, Lily Collins, Jesse Plemons, Omar Leyva
Directed by Charlie McDowell

If you call an apple an orange enough times, some people might believe it's an orange. It's a simple concept where, if you keep repeating something false, the general masses will begin to believe it's true. When you keep hearing: "'Windfall' is akin to a Hitchcock noir thriller," you might start to believe it - but take a closer look at the word "believe" - it has "lie" in it. Although "Windfall" tries to be a Hitchcock-style noir thriller, it's in fact nothing of the sort: it's a pandering passion play production featuring three amazing actors who, oddly enough considering their desire for the project, all seem like they'd rather be somewhere else - and so do we, as the viewer.

A man (Jason Segel) is enjoying some time in a secluded desert home, and all seems totally idyllic - until the owners of the home - a prominent CEO (Jesse Plemons) and his wife (Lily Collins) arrive. The man, who's been robbing the house, takes them hostage and demands fifty thousand dollars to start a new life, but it'll take twenty-four hours before the money arrives. This leads to a tense twenty-four hours where the three individuals spar on a mental and physical matter that escalates quickly.

"Windfall" is generally the type of film that would be associated with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock - a small cast, taking part in a very cerebral story in one location, filled with tension and dread from the outset that only escalates during the film's runtime. Yet "Windfall" is missing the key ingredient: the continual tension and dread. The majority of the film feels almost like a dark buddy comedy rather than a tense thriller, before all literal hell breaks loose and the ending happens so violently and abruptly that it was comical in all the wrong ways, culminating in a strange finale that drastically changes the tone that the film spent its thankfully short 90-minute runtime to create.

The film takes pride in the fact that we don't know the characters' names, which comes off as a pretentious way to elevate its own status. The three characters are so crudely drawn-out that they only live up to their stereotypes and don't really offer anything more than just a surface view of their lives, which is sad because the film could've been something special considering the pedigree in front of the camera, but the story is so lackluster and dull they got nothing to really work with, which leads to the audience feeling like the actors themselves don't even want to be there, despite one of them being married to the director.

Jason Segel is best known for his comedic roles, especially in the acclaimed series "How I Met Your Mother," and here he had a chance to really expand his appeal and deliver a strong dramatic performance, but it doesn't work out at all. His character - named Nobody - is your run-of-the-mill blue-collar worker who's been done wrong, and who wants to rob from the rich to give himself just a mediocre life. He's so inept at robbery that the CEO - the man who he's robbing - actually helps him in robbing himself. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, and he's easily the most beatable villain ever, if you even consider him a villain. This is where the story could've gone deeper, but it settles for surface level all the way through, as Segel's Nobody tries to balance the tightrope of a hardened criminal and pacifist, and he falls off that tightrope time and again in this film.

Jesse Plemons has been really making a name for himself recently, having earned an Oscar-nomination for his work in "The Power of the Dog," but here his talent is extremely wasted. As the CEO, he exhibits all the negative traits of a wealthy CEO - snotty, defiant, egotistical, and not caring about anyone else's wants and needs, including his own wife. Plemons' CEO is supposed to come off as unlikable, but he's so bland it's hard to feel any sort of emotion toward him. He just merely exists in this three-person snoozefest of a passion play.

Then there's Lily Collins, the wife of director Charlie McDowell (the son of famed actor Malcolm McDowell). If anyone would have invested stakes in the film's success, it's her - but she seems to be the most bored of all of them. As the wife of the CEO, she doesn't elevate any dialogue or even her own voice inflection, sounding completely monotone throughout the entire proceedings. You sense there's no love lost between this couple, but you just don't care. Collins doesn't do herself any favors as she deadpans her performance from start to finish, leading to that shocking finale that's only shocking because it seems to have come from a totally different movie, one that's much more intriguing and fascinating than the one I had to sit through to get to that point.

Despite it's short runtime and single setting, the film tries to tell many different stories at once: it tries to be some sort of kidnapping thriller, as well as a finger pointing at the wealthy and how morally corrupt they are, as well as the pitfalls of a loveless marriage - but it utterly, completely, totally fails on all counts. It's dull, dry, and devoid of any sense of intelligence, which only makes the shocking ending more shocking, but not in a good way - if it had kept the attention of the viewer with a slow burn thriller noir feel, the ending would've been the cherry on top of a film that would make Hitchcock proud - but instead it's the bacon bits on top of a suck salad that only claims to be a Hitchcock-inspired film.

The Score: D-