Whether “The Rental” will injure the Airbnb industry is debatable, but its impact on moviegoers will otherwise barely be noticed. Featuring one of the most dissatisfying, anticlimactic endings in genre memory, this paranoid thriller (the directing debut of Dave Franco) turns an isolated seaside villa into a slaughterhouse.
Not very inventively, it must be said, or even bloodily, as two young couples arrive for a weekend getaway. Accompanied by a dissonant soundtrack and a de rigueur dog, the four — the smug alpha male, the messed-up loser, the outsider and the innocent — settle in for some drinking, drugging and hot-tubbing. Charlie (Dan Stevens), a successful tech entrepreneur, enjoys needling his underachieving brother, Josh (Jeremy Allen White), who worries that his girlfriend, Mina (Sheila Vand), is too smart for him. Bright and bold, Mina is Charlie’s business partner and secret crush; she’s also the only interesting character onscreen.
Unforgivably, Franco (who wrote the screenplay with Joe Swanberg) saves the most clueless role (of Charlie’s blandly pleasant wife, Michelle), for his own wife, the marvelous Alison Brie. Only when Michelle is tucked up in bed does the fun begin as Mina and Charlie discover that their Ecstasy-fueled knee-trembler might have been filmed. Suspect number one is the property manager (a subtly sinister Toby Huss), whom Mina has already accused of having a racist reaction to her Middle Eastern heritage.
Yet it’s clear that this foursome was doomed to implode even absent the threats of a location cloaked in mist and a plot soaked in voyeurism — one that leaves the door propped wide open for a sequel. Whether anyone will care to walk through it is another matter.
The Rental
Rated R for shower sex and shoreside body disposal. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. Rent or buy on iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
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July 23, 2020 at 06:00PM
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‘The Rental’ Review: High Infidelity - The New York Times
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