A mediocre, misjudged and dutiful adaptation by adaptor/director Kei Ishikawa of the weak source material by author/executive producer Kazuo Ishiguro. It's not clear why anyone thought this was a good idea. I struggled to grasp the concluding movement largely because what came before was tedious.
Brian Tallerico saw it at Cannes 2025.
Vaguely prompted by Jason Di Rosso's chat with director Paul Feig back in December and even vaguer curiosity about Sydney Sweeney's acting chops. Rebecca Sonnenshine derived a screenplay from Freida McFadden's book. I did not believe one part of this movie.
Di Rosso billed it as some kind of throwback to the 1980s/1990s erotic thrillers, perhaps even mentioning the master Paul Verhoeven. However the first hour and a bit of setup is painfully slow and clunky and so much less inspired than Emily the Criminal (2022). It doesn't help that Aubrey Plaza is far better there than Sweeney here: her facial inertness etc. worked OK in Reality (2023) but proves inadequate when a larger emotional range is called for. Strangely enough male lead Brandon Sklenar (acting like a lost Baldwin brother) was in that too.
Therefore and given the genre I was just waiting for the twist(s). Ultimately it sorta wanted to be #metoo Gone Girl (2014) stiffened with some American Psycho (2000) but ultimately settles into a mimetic Promising Young Woman (2020) (and didn't we miss Carey Mulligan). There are also some moments of Alexandra's Project (2003) from long ago. None of it makes a tonne of sense. Nobody has any opsec. The soundtrack was not to my taste at all.
The sole thing on the saving-graces front is Amanda Seyfried. Everything lifts whenever she's on the screen and that makes the second half a lot more watchable than the first.
Monica Castillo at Roger Ebert's venue: two-and-a-half stars. Indeed Sweeney is far better in the final parts than all that came before. Peter Sobczynski. "[T]o call the film twisted trash would be a massive understatement."
