Windfall (92 minutes)
He’s manipulative, disgusting, charming, despicable, obvious-- he’s fascinating in a way that the world’s richest men are to us. We want to see him fail but maybe after we grab a beer with him.
For a while I’ve wanted to tackle a recent release, the main problem with that being, of course, there aren’t a lot of 90-minute movies being made. And on top of that, television seems to be trending upward with 90-minute or longer episodes of Stranger Things making me long for pre-Sopranos television shows. With Windfall (2022) my selection was driven purely by the runtime. Normally I consider aspects of the storytelling I want to cover or just rehash the joy of a favorite movie of mine, but this time I went in dark. Which you may be too, considering this one isn’t a Netflix “darling” getting the shit memed out of it.
Windfall is a stripped-down (read: covid-safe) thriller set on a beautiful Ojai estate and stars a cast of four: Jesse Plemons (CEO), Lily Collins (Wife), Jason Segal (Nobody), and Omar Leyva (Gardener) with the first three spending the majority of the screentime together. The plot is oh-so-simple: CEO and Wife arrive at their vacation home to find Nobody is in the middle of robbing them. The situation continues to escalate after Nobody takes them hostage and they spend 36 stressful hours together.
It was so refreshing to watch a movie that consisted of just people talking and walking and sitting and talking. I’m at a breaking point with CGI and multiverses; I really feel like I could snap at any moment if I have to watch any more monsters rip the fabric of reality apart. If you know me, you know I hate beating stuff to death. I dislike sequels most of the time. I stop watching shows when I know they’re about to jump the shark. I still don’t know how The OC ends because in my world it ends when Marissa dies as it should have. (I know this is contentious but maybe this insanity will drive you all to leave some comments for me.) I just like it when things can stand on their own and be left alone. I make some exceptions but… Bridget Jones’ Diary is one of my top three favorite movies and I’ve never seen the sequels so… there’s not a lot of hope I’ll get on board with any of this. It’s also a miracle I’ve been sucked into Marvel so deeply. But I digress.
Windfall was refreshing as a concept-- that’s where I was-- but it doesn’t stick the landing. The film is split pretty evenly into thirds. The second of which is the most interesting. Secrets are revealed, questions are raised, and the characters grow on us (as people or as mold remains to be seen). But the last third falls apart for me. This is where I should say: spoilers! So I can get into the nitty-gritty here. You good? Ok. Spoilers follow!
The ending didn’t feel earned to me, and that ruined the whole experience of the “slow burn” this movie had going on. Now, this is the first thing I’ve ever seen Lily Collins in-- I only know her as Emily in Paris and that is definitely not something I’ll be getting into-- and I didn’t find her character’s growth (or downfall really) all that convincing. In the end, she takes control and kills not just the intruder, Nobody, but also kills her husband, CEO. Wife didn’t come off as a murderer to me. Or as someone remotely capable of murder. And that’s disappointing because we had ample time to get to know her darker side and her darker tendencies. Instead, we spend her few monologues and scenes learning about her choice to marry CEO. Which is like---OK. But if you think every woman who has married for money and found herself unhappy is ALSO capable of a double homicide, I think we should be more concerned for society as a whole. It just wasn’t enough for me.
The only time we get close to something darker inside Wife is when she’s trying to talk down Nobody from killing her and CEO. The Gardener has just suffered his accidental death and she can see Nobody feels not just responsible but like he has to kill everyone else to keep himself safe. In her short monologue Wife says, “You’re a good person. I know. I know that you’re a good person. But there’s a step you haven’t taken yet and if you do, you’ll never be the same again. Trust me. You’re not a killer.” This is my favorite scene she does in the entire film. She has longer more complex monologues but this little scene carried a lot of weight for me. The subtlety in her tone change when she says “Trust me. You’re not a killer.” Had me wondering if she had killed before. Or knew a killer. Or witnessed a murder. In the end, it winds up being our hint at her ability to kill both men in the end. It’s beautifully done and is one of the many moments of this movie that work.
Jesse Plemons lights up my world as usual. No notes. He plays a self-obsessed tech billionaire so well it was like he was born into that skin. He somehow brings the film’s most sinister behavior and most comedic behavior to the table and vacillates between the two seamlessly. I honestly wonder how many documentaries about other billionaires he watched to get the character down because he rides the line of being hated and loved so well. He’s manipulative, disgusting, charming, despicable, obvious-- he’s fascinating in a way that the world’s richest men are to us. We want to see him fail but maybe after we grab a beer with him. I think it was also incredible to get to see this type of character in a very private and intimate setting. How would a tech CEO react to a small-time crook in his home? When would he lose his cool? An interesting study and one I was enthralled in.
And so now you must be asking… what doesn’t work? Well, strangely enough, where I struggled the most is with Jason Segel as Nobody. This is kind of a bummer because on paper he seems well cast to play a “nobody” caught stealing a few thousand dollars and then winding up in a hostage plot accidentally. I think where it misses is just how serious/agitated/grumpy he is the entire time. And look, I’m not asking he plays this like How I Met Your Mother or Forgetting Sarah Marshall but I do think this movie had room for Segel to play with tone. Plemons does this expertly throughout. But it almost feels as though Segel got caught up in being a stoic everyman. Or maybe it’s my problem and I can’t see past his other roles. (Y’all can watch it and tell me if I’m being unfair.) I feel like he didn’t reveal enough of his character to us in the same way that Plemons and Collins do. And I don’t mean via backstory, because we know very little about any of them, but through the same subtle tone shifts and facial expressions, we get from the others. He’s a little bit more -- flat. I realize I come off very Ebert-y at this moment, but when you have a film with very little “action” those subtleties matter.
Overall, I liked and appreciated this movie. As I said, it was refreshing to watch a movie that requires patience and has a script that takes real interpretation from the actors. Did the climax and ending really work for me? Not necessarily. But I enjoyed the ride enough to stay on and think about it some more. And these days, that can be a little rare.
This looked interesting and It’s been on my list to see…once I do I’ll go back and finish your review! 😊