Till Death

This really surprised me, in lots of good ways. For a movie where to write-up is “woman wakes up handcuffed to her dead husband while in the middle of nowhere”, it’s really more than that, and yet, it isn’t. The movie establishes a lot in a short amount of time before the plot kicks in, and does it surprisingly well. Emma, our protagonist, is the victim of a violent mugging, and it has put a wedge in her relationship. Her husband went from from an ADA to a high-paid defense lawyer, further straining the marriage. On their anniversary, her husband sets up an incredibly romantic evening, with a lovely dinner and a getaway to their lake house, which is adorned in all sorts of touching gestures. But you’ll notice him being a little domineering, trying to force closeness, and it’s uncomfortable. The next morning, all hell breaks loose … except Emma, who is now handcuffed to her dead husband, who made a lot of arrangements to make sure this will be the worst, and last, day of her life. There’s a lot to love about this movie, starting with the lush, beautiful direction. For 85% of the movie taking place in a snow-covered lake house, a garage, and a boathouse, all within a short walking distance, the direction captures the area in such a way that makes it seem like miles when you have 175 pounds of dead human attached to your wrist. And beyond that, there are just a lot of gorgeous shots in the movie. It is a visual feast. The pacing and editing is also excellent; there is no fat whatsoever on this movie. You get 15-20 minutes of character build, and 70-75 of intensity and tension. Not a single moment is wasted, and the movie breezes by. And then there’s Megan Fox as Emma, who really can act when she isn’t playing “hot chick” or “mean girl”. There is a lot of subtlety to her role, from the heartbreak she conveys when she breaks off an affair, to anxiousness about the nature of her husband’s surprise, to her desperation and determination when she’s trying to figure out how to survive. I never thought I’d see the day she made a believable, strong protagonist with depth of character, but here we are. The two issues I have with it are minor, but deserve mentioning. One, there’s far too many psych-gotcha misdirection moments. Not jump scares, but moments where you see something, the camera moves to a different shot, then back again and SURPRISE! The character isn’t there anymore, or what you thought was going to happen didn’t and the opposite happens instead. It’s not huge, but it is noticeable. Also, the husband’s reasoning for setting his plan in motion and the plan itself don’t seem proportional to one another. You do find out some info later that adds more color, but it still feels like, for all the things that drive him to do what he does, he’s targeting that anger at one person, and it feels odd. But this isn’t really the kind of movie you analyze at a deep level. Not to say it’s dumb; just that this movie exists to scratch a certain itch. This is a movie you watch for thrills and suspense and action, and it delivers all that. This is a roller coaster movie. If you’re fine with that, you’ll have a damned good time.