Movie Review: Send Help


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.