Come and Find Me (2016)

Number Rolled: 47

Movie Name/Year: Come and Find Me (2016)

Tagline: None

Genre: Thriller

Length: 111 minutes

Rating: R

Production Companies: Automatik Entertainment, Motion Picture Capital, Oddfellows Entertainment

Producer: Giuliana Bertuzzi, Rian Cahill, Leon Clarance, Chris Ferguson, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Marlaina Mah, Jo Monk, Jesse Savath, Laure Vaysse

Director: Zack Whedon

Writer: Zack Whedon

Actors: Annabelle Wallis, Aaron Paul, Garret Dillahunt, Chris Chalk, Enver Gjokaj, Zachary Knighton, Terry Chen, Jordana Largy, Dean Redman, Michael Kopsa, Jessica Heafey, Alan O’Silva, Artine Brown, Tim Perez, Corey Schmitt

Stunt Doubles: Brent Connolly, Bruce Crawford, Crystal Dalman, Christopher Gordon, Trevor Jones, Zandara Kennedy, Melissa R. Stubbs

Blurb from Netflix: When his photographer girlfriend vanishes, an L.A. graphic designer starts his own investigation and uncovers a web of deceit, crime and corruption.

Selina’s Point of View:

I feel like we’ve been seeing a lot of movies involving vanishing people lately. Most of them follow a pretty standard route… but Come and Find Me definitely goes a different way.

The story was decent, but I wasn’t overly fond of the direction.

There were a huge amount of twists and turns in the story, enough to keep me on my toes… though some of it seemed a bit out of left field. The problem wasn’t that parts came out of nowhere though, it was that the way the movie was directed altered the pacing so much that it almost seemed like every twist was super rushed… and still dragging on.

The writing was fine. If I had to really try to pinpoint the big issue, I’d say that Zack Whedon (Rubicon, Deadwood, Fringe) might have had trouble making the hard decisions on editing.

For a film of this nature, even following a different path than most take, two hours is a long time. It really didn’t need the full amount. With the right cuts, the pacing of the film could have been really good… but it likely wouldn’t have gone too much over ninety minutes.

I also wasn’t a fan of the way transitions were done. I think it could have been done better to avoid confusion – though the ending did show me where Whedon was trying to go with it.

I did like the ending, even with the back-and-forth transitions.

I’m not sure I’d watch this film again. It was just a little on the mediocre side.

Cat’s Point of View:

I’ll admit right out of the gate that this movie pleasantly surprised me.

There were elements found in other films leaning to action, but I can’t say that I’ve seen it quite packaged this way before.

Broken down into its parts, the movie stands pretty solid. While I’m not as familiar with the work of Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders, The Brothers Grimsby, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword), it didn’t matter here. I connected well with her character and the framework of the story gave quite a bit of insight even if she didn’t have nearly as much screen-time as co-star Aaron Paul (The Last House on the Left, Eye in the Sky, BoJack Horseman). 

I liked the flashback element here, as it helped peel back the layers to the main characters’ relationship.

While I’m on that topic, I feel the need to tip my hat on the balance of the romance element to the story. It wasn’t too over the top and didn’t overshadow everything else going on. I enjoyed the little nuances that were well placed to deliver both lightbulb moments as well as make the couple endearing and worth investing in rather than rolling my eyes at.

This happened to be the directorial debut for Zack Whedon (John from Cincinnati, Southland, Halt and Catch Fire). I hadn’t realized he was the mastermind behind Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (2008). His writing credits are certainly buzzworthy. I can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeve for the future.

I really enjoyed this movie and would gladly recommend it – especially for anyone that’s looking for a little bit of a blend between mystery, romance, and action without a lot of blood.

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 60%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 33%

Metascore - 46/100

Metacritic User Score – 5.2/10

IMDB Score – 5.7/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2.5/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

Movie Trailer: