Milla Jovovich as honeymooner Cydney in "A Perfect Getaway"A couple on their honeymoon in Honolulu have been murdered. Enter Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich), a couple on their honeymoon in Honolulu. See where this is going? Although the news of the murders originally panics them, they decide, quite daftly, to continue with arranged plans and hit the foothills for a backpacking expedition to remember. But things get spooky when they encounter another couple who leave them cold. Soon, they’ve teamed with thrill seeking duo Nick (Timothy Olyphant) and Gina (Kiele Sanchez) in an attempt to keep potential killers at bay.
Once in a while a film will come along that leaves you with nothing. That film is A Perfect Getaway, a thriller built around a single concept that keeps you guessing for an hour before anything actually happens. It’s not that I couldn’t handle the tension – Deliverance, a somewhat similar movie, took just about an hour to establish the central problem and was brilliant in its build-up. You felt unnerved, and the atmosphere was something horrible, looming and uneasy. Here, it doesn’t go down as well. But I doubt I will ever be satisfied with a movie that bases itself entirely around a lone revelation. The characters are dull and cardboard, the story treats you like an idiot, and the whole thing is goofy and terribly unspectacular.
A lot of critics seemed relatively warm to this one. I can’t agree. On rare occasion will I leave a movie feeling exactly as I did going in. A Perfect Getaway left me blank. It didn’t spur a single emotion. The only redeeming factor? That Hawaii looked beautiful. I wish I’d spent 97 minutes there instead of with this. (**)
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