Lurid thriller in which a mild-mannered young widow (Anna
Kendrick) strikes up an unlikely friendship with the sophisticated, hard-bitten
mother (Blake Lively) of one of her son's classmates. But when her new pal
mysteriously disappears and she tries to track her down, she discovers just how
little she really knew about her. Director Paul Feig's glossy screen version of
Darcey Bell's 2017 novel, which also features Henry Golding as the missing
woman's husband, is undeniably ingenious. Yet the dark doings, both past and
present, that drive the plot involve repellent behavior that, while not exactly
endorsed by Jessica Sharzer's script, is not condemned either. Instead, the
taboo-breaking is treated as spice to lure jaded viewers.
Watch out for: Gunplay and
other violence with little gore, drug use, strong sexual content, including a
semi-graphic scene of incest and an off-screen aberrant act, brief rear female
and partial nudity, about a half dozen uses of profanity, pervasive rough and
frequent crude language.
Rated: O, morally offensive;
MPAA: R
© Arlington Catholic Herald 2018