Rating: 4/5
Windfall is a suspenseful thriller directed by Charlie McDowell about a man who breaks into a house but is interrupted by the arrival of the couple that owns it. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Nobody (Jason Segel) is relaxing in this empty villa that has its vast orchard of oranges. He takes in the scenery stakes out the house for any money and other valuables and then gets ready to leave, but has a change of mind.
He goes back in search of more items to steal but right at that moment, the owners of the villa arrive. A wealthy CEO (Jesse Plemons) and his wife (Lily Collins) have decided to have an impromptu holiday and showed up at their vacation house.
The CEO has made his wealth by writing an algorithm that improves company productivity while reducing the need for physical employees, which has led to countless layoffs. He’s proud of his work and has little empathy for the less fortunate.
His wife is the head of many charitable foundations and does a lot of philanthropic work to support her husband. Their relationship, however, is not the strongest at the moment, and being in a stressful hostage situation exacerbates that.
The nobody is just a regular guy who’s fallen into hard times and is caught in a crazy situation he didn’t want to be in and tries his best to keep a cool head and get through it. It’s a very tense and terrifying situation in this melting pot of mixed emotions.
Performances
The three stars of this film perform stupendously and their chemistry and banter together work wonderfully. They each play their roles to perfection and bounce off each other like an echo chamber.
Jason Segel does well as nobody, a man who just wanted a quick payday but is then forced to think on his feet while they constantly tease him losing the plot at some point.
Jesse Plemons is narcissistic and dismissive, a perfectly evil character that may not be too dissimilar to many rich and elite people in the real world. His thoughts and opinions mirror those that go around a lot amongst the upper class and is bound to sting.
Lily Collins plays the smart yet underappreciated wife who has dreams and goals of her own but feels like she is not able to pursue them or live her life the way she wants to as a consequence of the path she chose.
Positives
The story is phenomenal. So well written and directed, this thriller has the audience glued to the screen because of its quality.
It moves at a steady pace and the lean runtime makes you feel like no time has passed, in a good way. You’re left enamoured by the situation these three people are left in and are eager to see the resolution.
The camera work is of the highest quality as they have beautifully captured every aspect of their location, giving the setting a chance to breathe so that the audience can take it all in.
The background score deserves rapturous applause for how well it intensifies the mood of the film throughout. The instruments used, lend the film a very Hitchcockian vibe like many thrillers of the yesteryears.
The character work is sublime as we get to resonate with the different people involved at some point or another.
Negatives
There is a slight lull at certain moments where you feel a bit of a disconnect but that is promptly fixed wherever noticeable.
Verdict
Windfall is an amazing film that is highly recommended to anyone who is a fan of the art of filmmaking and every aspect that it envelops. This tight 90-minute thriller will not take too much of your time and yet, will have you have engrossed for every second of it.
Also Read: Windfall (2022) summary and ending explained