This is a riveting, engaging thriller with elements of a psychological drama mixed with plenty of blood and violence and some mild social commentary about class and, yes, privilege. Much of the movie has a stage play feel about it. Kinetic at times, but also with a fair amount of smart dialog.
Here's the story...
Richard Hunter (Joshua Close) is a young lawyer with a bright future. But as the movie opens we learn that he has just made a costly mistake in a civil case by deciding not to introduce evidence that, it's implied, was gathered illegally and would harm others. An overconfident, virtuous Richard thought he could win the case without the dodgy dossier.
Result: his boss, Preston Westwood (Sam Trammel), a senior partner in the law firm, basically fires him by phone on a late Friday afternoon. It seems the other partners and the client are furious. But Richard convinces Preston to invite him and his pregnant wife Tara (Lynn Roessler) up to his "cottage" (most of us would call it a luxurious, large lake home) in the north of Ontario so that Richard can plead to be kept on.
Preston is quite obnoxious as an overbearing, materialistic showoff, unethical to the core. His wife, Julia (Laura Harris) is a socialite and snob who may have a drinking problem and is not averse to flirting with the much younger Richard.
Things accelerate and go downhill from there. There is a near wife-swap incident fueled by Merlot and potent weed. That's interrupted by a late night visit from a local family that Preston's had a running feud with. Things heat up from there. Violence ensues. Shotguns, strangulation, blunt force trauma, even propane, gasoline, arrows, a jar of caviar, and drowning are all in the bloody mix. Great fun for those who like this sort of stuff. And much like a teen slasher movie, the question is "who will get it next?"
As the movie progresses, we see that Richard is not the brave saint he thinks he is. He's a weak-willed, vacillating, very beta male who is resentful of his middle class roots and not averse to setting aside what principles he thinks he may hold. Nor is Tara so pure. No doubt thinking of possible prison time, she reluctantly goes along with a cover-up at least for a while. And we see further evidence that Preston and Julia are just garden variety sociopaths.
Now, there are a number of implausibilities in the movie, but they're not fatal. A reasonable viewer can come up with some explanations. And the ending is, for some reviewers here, ambiguous. I thought it straight forward though.
All in all, great fun. A good Friday night movie. Nothing too challenging after a hard day of work.
