David Twohy’s thriller about a newlywed couple, going for a romantic honeymoon hike on Hawaii, offers suspense, good acting and exhilarating scenery.
We meet the newlyweds Cliff and Cydney (Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich) as they arrive to Hawaii and are just about to start their honeymoon hike. On the way to their trail, they bump into another couple, which gives them some bad vibes. They manage to go on without them and start their hike.
Not long after they started their hike, they meet Nick (Timothy Olyphant), a self-assertive man that seems to know his way around the trail. Nick takes the couple to his girlfriend Gina, and Cliff and Cydney decide to team up with them.
They also hear rumors about a gruesome murder on a couple, which has taken place on a beach nearby. Cliff manages to confirm the news and through his cell, he learns that survivals cameras have caught the murders on video and that they are a man and a woman. This sets Cliff’s imagination into overdrive and soon his suspiciousness aims towards his newfound hiking friends.
The story then unfolds into a classic cat-and-mouse game, taking place in something akin to heaven on earth, where no one is to be trusted, nor seems to be what them claims to be.
Before I saw the movie, I thought that Milla Jovovich would be the incontestable star of this movie. Although, even though Jovovich delivers, as usual, I think that Timothy Olyphant overshadowed her, by far.
Olyphant delivers an undisputable and high-spirited interpretation of the cocky military Nick, which was a delight to watch. In addition, Steve Zahn also served up a solid interpretation of the somewhat physically weak and ineffectual Cliff.
Olyphant and Zahn gives us many memorable scenes, like the one where Nick tells a vivid story about how he got a grenade shell into his skull and how they covered the hole with a metal plate. You can clearly see that they both enjoyed doing this movie, which I think is one of the keys to their splendid performances.
Even thought you will certainly work out the twist, before it actually happen, the director David Twohy tells his story in such a clever way, that the movie goes on regardless; keeping us in the chairs until the end. That is also one of the reason to why I think that you will be able to watch it a couple of times, at least, before it will become tiresome and dull.
Overall, I think that David Twohy, with the help of the actors rattling performances, has created a swift and hearty thriller that is well worth watching.
My rating of “A Perfect Getaway”:
3+/5
Box of Horror 