Cliff and Cydney (Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich) are an adventurous young couple celebrating their honeymoon by backpacking to one of the most beautiful, and remote, beaches in Hawaii. Hiking the wild, secluded trails, they believe they’ve found paradise. But when the pair comes across a group of frightened hikers discussing the horrifying murder of another newlywed couple on the islands, they begin to question whether they should turn back. Unsure whether to stay or flee, Cliff and Cydney join up with two other couples, and things begin to go terrifyingly wrong. Far from civilization or rescue, everyone begins to look like a threat and nobody knows whom to trust. Paradise becomes hell on earth as a brutal battle for survival begins in A Perfect Getaway.
Cliff is a talented new screenwriter, at least according to him, and the film plays with that a bit by embracing the mechanics of the well-crafted mystery script. (As one person says of the path they're on, "There are a lot of twists and turns ahead.") So, you want possible villains? Director David Twohy provides plenty to choose from. Could the murderers be those trashy hitchhikers Cliff and Cydney almost gave a lift to -- and who end up following them on the trail? Could they be the owners of that back-country supply store, who stared real hard when Cliff pulled out his bankroll? Maybe. More probable are Nick and Gina (Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez), a down-home couple who seem far too familiar with knives and crossbows and gutting animals, and tend to stare off into space when no one is looking. So who are the real killers? Your guess is as good as mine. Well, mine is probably a little better because I've seen so many of these movies, and I can never watch one without trying to solve it; it's a compulsion, like doing the daily crossword. And yes, I figured this one out, too, although not as prematurely as I solved the recent "Surveillance." But after I did, I felt as if Twohy hadn't quite played fair. I can't say how without giving the whole thing away, but let's just say that instead of doing things to deceive the other characters, the villains do some things to deceive the viewers. That said, Twohy, who also made the underrated "The Arrival" and the Vin Diesel-fueled "Pitch Black," has a feel for dialogue and some novel situations (although a slow and arty third-act flashback drags things down). He's got a feel for good actors, too.
Zahn has been a consistently entertaining personality for awhile now, whether it's in oddball comedies or peculiar performances on "The Tonight Show." He brings a nice, everyman quality to Cliff that wins our sympathies instantly. Jovovich is too perky and screechy as Cydney -- I wanted to chase her with a chainsaw myself after about five minutes -- but Sanchez is fine as the damaged Gina, and Olyphant gives a hugely charismatic performance as Nick. I don't know why the 41-year-old Olyphant isn't already a movie star. He's handsome and has a roguish charm; he had a long run on HBO's "Deadwood," but he's never quite connected in films the way he could. It's unlikely that A Perfect Getaway will make a very large difference. For his part, Zahn has a small and quirky following (and there are a few "Resident Evil" geeks who will watch Jovovich in anything), but that's not enough to break this film out of its sturdy genre niche. Which is fine. A Perfect Getaway provides some scares, some gross-out moments and a corkscrew plot; you can see it in theaters now, or catch it on DVD sometime next year and probably be moderately entertained either way. Just don't think too much about that final twist. This gets a mediocre 3 on my "Go See" scale.
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