Rachel McAdams Is All Wrong (and So Right) for Send Help

by

Okay, let me tell you about Rachel McAdams in Send Help. She’s absolutely delightful, and honestly, she nearly carries the whole movie. There’s just one little thing – her character, Linda, feels… oddly cast. I kept picturing Phyllis Smith from The Office nailing this role. Linda is that dedicated, overlooked office worker – the one who busts her butt, skips lunch, and always gets passed over for promotions by the guys. She believes in hard work paying off, which makes it even more painful when she’s constantly ignored. And she’s just… socially clueless. She doesn’t pick up on hints that her coworkers don’t want her at karaoke or that the new CEO isn’t going to keep a promise made by his father. Basically, she’s hit a glass ceiling, and everyone around her is annoyed she hasn’t just accepted it. There’s a particularly cringe-worthy scene where she tries to impress the new CEO, Bradley Preston, and he fixates on a tiny piece of tuna on her lip instead of, you know, listening to her. It’s not just the tuna, though. It’s the fact that he has to actually look at a woman he’s not interested in. It’s a really pointed, and often uncomfortable, observation about how easily women are dismissed.

The movie stars Rachel McAdams, who remains captivating even when initially presented in unfashionable clothes and with messy hair. The plot of Send Help – written by the team behind Baywatch and directed by Sam Raimi (his first project outside of established franchises since Drag Me to Hell) – centers on how the power dynamics between the two main characters shift when they’re stranded on a deserted island during a business trip to Bangkok. Despite a thirteen-year age difference, the film seems hesitant to emphasize a significant difference in attractiveness between the characters. Linda, a Survivor enthusiast with wilderness skills, quickly adapts to island life after escaping her office job. She transforms – her hair becomes wild and free, and she even fashions a bikini from her undergarments – becoming resourceful and capable, like a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson. She’s even able to create a gourmet meal from foraged ingredients and craft a stylish sun hat with ease. McAdams delivers a consistently funny and committed performance, fearlessly throwing herself into messy scenes – like a boar hunt involving blood and mucus – and convincingly portraying her character’s newfound survival skills.

It’s not surprising that Rachel McAdams excels at physical comedy, given her early roles in films like The Hot Chick and the series Slings & Arrows. However, it’s still delightful to see her deliver comedic moments, like her wonderfully fake shock in Game Night (“Oh no, he died!”). She’s also great in Send Help. When Linda’s patient, Bradley, tries to regain control by firing her after they survived a plane crash together, she sharply retorts, “Oh, am I? Oh no!” Bradley is a classic ’80s movie villain – oblivious to modern sensitivities and fiercely loyal to his friends. He struggles to accept that Linda is now in charge. The most rewarding parts of Send Help are when Linda confidently asserts her competence and forces Bradley to face reality, especially as he limps around insisting he can handle things himself. It’s also fun to watch Linda’s simple joy in using her survival skills, like starting a fire, and her playful excitement when she finds a conch shell and carries it back to camp.

I was so thrilled to see Raimi really lean into the over-the-top gore of Send Help – it felt like he was revisiting what made his earlier work so special! But I felt a little let down when the movie started trying to make Linda a mirror of Bradley’s discomfort. It just didn’t quite commit. The film clearly draws inspiration from movies like Triangle of Sadness and Swept Away, which brilliantly explore what happens when social hierarchies crumble and people are left to their own devices. There’s a great moment early on where Linda chooses to stay stranded, because she’s enjoying the power she has. However, after setting up this interesting dynamic – and hinting at a crush she has on Bradley that he doesn’t return – the movie seemed afraid to go to a truly uncomfortable place. By avoiding any suggestion of coercion, it tries to paint Linda as morally superior, but it just feels like it’s doing a Bradley – fixating on the shocking stuff to avoid really seeing her. She’s a woman enjoying being in charge, and frankly, a little messy, and the movie shies away from letting her be fully, imperfectly human. It’s happy to show her being brutal to maintain her power, but true equality means letting her be just as selfish and monstrous as the men she’s overthrown. Linda, the strategy and planning expert, deserves to be a little grotesque too!

Read More

2026-01-30 20:54