Rachel McAdams | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

The new movie “Send Help” at the start is all about the way too many unfortunate millions of us have to suffer as we have to make a living to buy food and shelter. The massive injustice, abuse, and disrespect some of us have to endure from a bad boss or deranged co-workers are some of the worst parts of making a living.

This movie reminded me of “The Devil Wears Prada”, released in 2006, which shows the abuse so many of us have to live through because we have no leverage. When someone else has the power to take away our income, we have to hold back our anger to avoid being fired. Dealing with a bad boss and abusive co-worker(s) is one of the greatest sources of extreme stress in our lives.

Send Help is the first movie I have ever seen that attempts to “turn the tables” on the abusive boss, and the back stabbling, credit taking co-workers, with an inspired and brilliant story idea that involves a private jet crashing on a deserted island where the abused employee Linda Liddle, played by Rachel McAdams tries to survive on an island with her scumbag boss, Bradley Preston, played by Dylan O’Brien. The scenes of the Jet decompressing and falling apart in mid-air and the crash on the deserted island are as good as the movie Cast Away starring Tom Hanks, released in 2000.

Linda Liddle is an employee of a financial company where the CEO recently died and his son, Bradly Preston takes over the company. Even though Linda is far and away the most brilliant and hard-working employee in the company, she does not dress or have the personality of the other employees, and because of this, she is disrespected and denied a Vice President position in the company after seven years in favor of a new employee who has been with the company for only 6 months. How many times in our lives have we been the victim of or witness to injustice like this? When something like this happens to any good person, regardless of how hard they worked and how much they deserve fair treatment, far too often, there is nothing that can be done to correct the injustice.

The scenes on the deserted island are at times extremely bloody and violent (one scene where Linda kills a wild boar), some are completely insane, one scene is both unexpected and stupid, and the ending, due to its craziness, is impossible to predict. The relationship between Laura and Bradly is at first very combative and rude, and later turns into an unexpected impromptu friendship, within the ongoing attempts to create twists and turns in this insane story. I was reminded of the famous quote, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” — Maya Angelou. This is a truth that holds regardless of any extreme circumstance.

This is the first horror/drama/action movie that Rachel McAdams has starred in; her performance is both very well done and impressive expecially with many of the action scenes. Dylan O’Brien is also very good in this role, along with his evil laugh, playing a narcissistic, disgusting person who has no business being in charge of other people’s lives and careers.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are an extremely high 92%, I agree with this and highly recommend this film.

This is one of the few times in the life of this movie blog where I can definitely say, a new star has been born. The star of the new movie “Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret” who plays the title role of Margaret is Abby Ryder Fortson, a 15-year-old actress who is so good, that there are no signs anywhere within these 2 hours where it looks like she is acting. This young woman is a natural, not only destined to be a new standout in future films but should be nominated and win, a best actress Oscar for this role.

This film is based on the Judy Blume book of the same name, published in 1970. Most impressive about this story is that it is entirely about mundane real life, normal events, including moving from New York City to New Jersey, adjusting to a new school, making new friends as a 15-year-old teenage girl, peer pressure and worries among several teenage girls about getting their first period. Within this story, getting your first period mutates into a contest, born from a desperate need to feel normal and wanting so badly to be like everybody else.

The central character in this outstanding film is Margaret a 15-year-old girl, played perfectly by Abby Ryder Fortson. Her mother Barbara, is played expertly by Rachel McAdams, in one of her best roles in years. Margaret has a very close connection with her grandmother Sylvia, played by Cathy Bates and their relationship is one of the highlights of this movie. This story is also about Margaret talking to God while trying to decide on her chosen religion because her mother is Catholic and her father is Jewish. This choice of religion reaches an important high point towards the end of the film where Margaret’s grandparents meet during a family dinner.

Several other substories include PTA meetings and other run of the mill, normal situations, that at times seem to defy the normal pattern of most movies – where something crazy, or off the wall has to happen only to make the story unique and different. We have forgotten that normal and mundane can be good, funny and entertaining. There is nothing crazy in this story, this film is all about solid story telling and nothing more, making it unique entirely because it was all performed so well.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this film is a very high 99%, with my rating at 100% and my highest recommendation.