Ready or Not!

Count to one hundred Mississippi's while I find a neat little place to tuck myself in. Which is exactly what I did a few weeks later than intended and certainly a bit more lonelier than I expected. But with an early bird ticket at the local theater, I found myself alone in an empty theater as the music played and the credits rolled- and I fucking loved this movie!

Firstly, let's get the preliminaries out of the way. Grace (Samara Weaving) is set to marry into the incredibly wealthy Le Domas Family "Dominion" by marrying younger son Alex (Mark O'Brien). It's the event of the season and the whole family is there to celebrate the nuptials. Alcoholic brother, Daniel (Adam Brody) seems to be the only family member still on speaking terms with the rebellious Alex. Mother (Andie MacDowell) is just happy to have her son back and the rest of the family is eager to start the evening's festivities which always includes a game to be played whenever someone marries into the family. The game is never planned in advance and Grace must pick a card from a mysterious box, and when she pulls "Hide and Seek" the world might as well have dropped out on her.

You see, the Le Domas family has a secret pact with a mysterious being and picking THAT card means that she has to hide while the rest of the family tries to hunt her down and kill her. And while it may be cliche to say, hilarity does ensue. When a maid is accidentally killed, it tips off the bride to the truth and her husband fills her in on the rest of the details as he tries to get her out of the house and to relative safety. (Pun intended) But all is not a clear cut path for our lovers, as revelations expose more family secrets and consequences for both wife and husband.

Samara Weaving OWNS the screen from start to finish. She's working up quite the genre resume the past few years and is no less astounding and downright charming in this story. Which is good, because we really need to cheer for Grace throughout the film. But we also wind up cheering for one other character, Adam Brody instills pathos and depth to Daniel, giving us a brilliantly layered performance throughout the film. He could have just coasted on one-liners and odd jabs here and there, but this is the one Le Domas family member who truly seems to understand Grace's humanity and the lack of that humanity in the rest of the family.

10 out of 10, a perfect film for me with great energy throughout.