Have you ever been so pushed to the edge at work by a boss, or overshadowed by others who take credit for your hard work? Because, let’s face it, we’ve all been there at least once in our life.
For Linda Liddle (played by Rachel McAdams), being overlooked has been part and parcel of her life, and just like every other employee trying to survive the jungle that is an office, she has tried to take it in her stride… until she didn’t have to anymore.
Send Help tells the story of a battle for survival between Linda, a workhorse of an employee who is good at her job but lacked the acceptable people skills, and her newly appointed boss Bradley Preston (played by Dylan O’Brien), when the two ended up stranded on an island after their plane malfunctioned mid-air.
Even though the premise sounded like the set-up to another one of those stranded-on-an-island kind of story, this was an alternative take that fleshes out a fantasy us working adults would have probably had once in our life.
The idea to have the boss you disliked the most, stuck with you on an island? It’s the ultimate dream, especially if you are the only thing standing in their way of surviving or dying.
From the get-go, it was easy to relate to Linda, who became very much like an embodiment of female empowerment as she quickly adjusted to island life, and the role of a leader.
After being the butt of every joke, it was satisfying to see her turn the tables on Bradley, being the one in control and the one HE had to rely on for survival. While it is questionable the lengths she would go to stay in control, I could understand her wanting to hold on to it after years of being dismissed.
Linda felt kinda like an anti-hero to me; someone you’d like and cheer for despite having very questionable morals, that eventually led to her committing murder.
For me, this likability for Linda was further boosted by the brilliant Rachel McAdams, who sheds all remanent of the familiar, sweet, girl-next-door to take on this silently unhinged, psycho lady obsessed with wilderness survival skills, who eventually turns the table on her prick of a boss when he is left powerless without the comforts of his privilege.
I love that she does it with such ease too, playing on her ability to turn her sweet rom-com smile into a mask for her slowly losing her sanity, especially in scenes where she was losing the ability to control a situation.
It was important that she had a good partner to play off of too, in Dylan O’Brien, who also gave a very visceral performance of a man being broken down psychologically, and losing the power and control he had been given as a privileged man.
While I’d always think that it is a challenge for two actors to carry different scenes when their location stays stagnant, Rachel and Dylan’s great chemistry translated to this wonderfully crafted dynamic between them, that kept me wanting to see how their dysfunctional relationship would continue to evolve.
And evolved it did, from the psychological mind game she played with Bradley that threatened his manhood, to the climactic no holds barred fight between Linda and Bradley. The fight, was coincidentally one of my favourite scenes in the film because of the raw, untethered nature of the moment where these two people have had enough of the pretend niceties, and would rather fight to the death than continue trying to survive on the island together.
I also loved that it was the first time we get to see Rachel McAdams all bloodied up and dirty, and really basking in the gory of a Sam Raimi film. In saying this, fans of Sam Raimi would definitely appreciate the amount of gory details in this one, including a homage to a particularly iconic scene from Drag Me to Hell.
All in all, Send Help is a fun dark comedy that not only brings your deepest darkest fantasy of being marooned on an island with your toxic boss to life, but it also serves as a reminder that we all need to be like Linda sometimes in our lives, and take back our narrative in a world dictated by others.
You can watch the trailer for Send Help here.
