WHAT YOU WISH FOR - Mark Reviews Movies

What You Wish For, Magnet Releasing

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 30, 2024

Ryan (Nick Stahl) is in big trouble, and it doesn't seem as if his situation could get any worse. Life usually proves that little bit of solace wrong, but a thriller like What You Wish For definitely will with almost complete certainty.

Writer/director Nicholas Tomnay's irony-laden tale is clever in how it makes us think we know where it's going. In other words, we're pretty certain we know how the filmmaker will make matters worse for his protagonist, but Tomnay keeps throwing curveballs. Oh, Ryan remains in trouble, to be sure, but the specifics of the trouble keep evolving in ways that make his previous concerns seem downright quaint by comparison.

Obviously, this makes any discussion of the plotting difficult to tread, because the surprise of the narrative is a key component of why the film works. Tomnay doesn't just leave it at the twists and turns of this story, though. His approach to the material, particularly the tone of how those things are revealed and the pacing of when they are, shows a degree of storytelling skill that's pretty admirable.

The way this story is told is just as important as the story itself, because the film's style says something about the way people are so oblivious to danger until it's too late, as well as how easy it might be to pass a point of no return without even noticing it happening. That makes it feel even more insidious than the particular details—which are already quite sinister without much help.

The story begins with Ryan arriving in an unspecified Latin American country, where he's about to have a reunion with an old friend from culinary school. There are two things to know about Ryan, and both of them are probably safe to divulge without giving away too much information. The first is that he's a chef but isn't anywhere near where he'd like to be at this point in his career. Cooking at a chain hotel, Ryan might as well not be a chef compared to his old pal Jack (Brian Groh), who had some success after moving to London. He's an accomplished chef but, notably for the mechanics of the plot, not a famous one, and his newest gig is preparing private meals for the wealthy elite by way of an agency that arranges such experiences.

That's why Jack is staying at a private villa in this country. He's about a week out from making a four-course meal for some very rich people, and the agency will pay him generously for his services, in addition to allowing him a week-long vacation of sorts at a fancy home while he plans and preps the event.

That leads us to the second thing to know about Ryan. He's in debt to some bad people. Someone keeps texting Ryan on behalf of those people while he's catching up with his old friend, saying that they know he left the country, that he has only a few days to pay off what he owes them, and that they will find him no matter where he may be or go. Jack suggests his own life isn't as perfect as it appears, but Ryan isn't buying that, given what his pal's job looks like.

Maybe Ryan is just trying to get away from those people to whom he owes money, or perhaps, he has an ulterior motive for meeting with Jack after 12 years without seeing each other. After all, what kind of friend sneaks into his buddy's computer while he's away, logs in to the friend's back account, and just stares at the sizeable balance on the screen? Stahl is quite good here as a man who's mostly a blank slate, simply existing in a sense of desperation, while trying his hardest to hide it, and improvising his way through any opportunity that comes up for him to get what he wants—or instantly adjusting to any problem that arises.

Without saying too much, the opportunities come when Ryan has a chance to access his friend's bank account in a more direct way and Jack's gig falls into his lap. That more or less solves the whole debt issue, but then, he has to deal with two of the agency's representatives, Imogene (Tamsin Topolski) and Maurice (Juan Carlos Messier), who expect their chef to know all of their procedures, each of their rules, and, well, what exactly this organization actually does. Jack doesn't have a clue, but he certainly finds out quickly and without any warning as to the kind of situation into which he has gotten himself.

Excuse the vagueness, but it is necessary for the impact of the story's revelations to be preserved. What can be said about them is that they're horrifying in a way that makes Jack's longing for an easy life understandable and puts Ryan in such an impossible position that his actions become more about survival than anything else.

Tomnay keeps elevating the stakes in explicit terms, but the subversive trick is the matter-of-fact way the two representatives present these new details. They speak of heinous acts as if they're everyday errands, and Ryan just has to play along, because those debt-collectors are nothing compared to these two and the people they represent.

The film goes along with these developments to their extreme ends, too—not only in terms of what happens, but also in the straightforward and almost relaxed manner with which they're spoken of and shown. What You Wish For is even more unsettling as a result, because it's simply presented as a horrific, inescapable reality.

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