Send Help (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Sam Raimi

Starring:  Rachel McAdams, Dylan O'Brien

Send Help might've been pitched as Misery meets Cast Away.  Instead of one person trapped on a deserted island, there are two and one of them is the other's dickhead boss.  Linda Liddle (McAdams) is an Annie Wilkes-type in a cutthroat corporate world.  She is an accounting whiz at some big company who was promised a promotion by the CEO who soon after dies and his son takes over.  He epitomizes arrogance and cockiness and finds Linda repulsive.  Then again, she does devour tuna fish sandwiches at her desk and according to Bradley has less than desirable personal hygiene.

Bradley and his crew then take a business trip to Thailand and bring Linda along because she knows the client well.  While on board, and shortly after Bradley and his buddies were viewing Linda's Survivor audition video and laughing at it, the plane malfunctions causing it to crash into the ocean.  Linda and Bradley are the only survivors and wash up on shore of a remote island.  Linda puts her survival skills to good use, while Bradley is helpless and injured and relies on Linda to even eat or drink water.  

Because Bradley is Bradley, he grows to resent Linda because he is the boss and shouldn't be relying on Linda to save him.  But then, Bradley and Linda begin to communicate better and respect one another to a point, but Bradley and Linda show their true colors in more ways than one.  Both are not likable.  Linda at first is the more sympathetic of the two, but then we see her darker side.  The McAdams performance walks the tightrope between pathetic, resourceful, and ultimately sneaky evil.  She's very good at balancing it all and still make it plausible. 

O'Brien is a frat bro type who attempts to stretch his boundaries and perhaps turn into a grateful man who sees Linda as valuable, but then again, it's tough to not be a prick when that's who you've been all your life.  Send Help has satirical elements and some of the scenes are unnecessarily gory and blood-soaked (I think of the boar scene and the projectile vomiting later), but Send Help is quite entertaining even if you consider that we're stuck on a deserted island with these two less-than-lovable characters.