“Killing is bad. Like, unacceptably bad.”
I had such high hopes for this romantic comedy. I didn’t expect that it would raise the level of the genre, but I figured that it would be some lighthearted fun like in The Ugly Truth or Sex Tape. The unfortunate part is that I feel like it had that potential; it just required better story development. A shame; this really could have been a win for Kaley Cuoco. Not that she needs one; of the big three of The Big Bang Theory, I’d say she’s the one with the fullest dance card. It’s like she hasn’t taken a breath since the series ended. But then again one could argue that she’s always been on the go since her days on 8 Simple Rules. Even so, I really wanted to like this film, and while it had a couple of good moments, the lackluster story development really diminished any traction that the film gained.
The film follows Dave (David Oyelowo) and Emma (Kaley Cuoco), who have the seemingly perfect life – two kids, suburban house, good jobs – but due to their careers and home life, the romance has become lacking in their relationship. Dave, looking to shake things up, suggests the idea of role play. The rules are simple – they meet as strangers for one night to rekindle their relationship. Things seem to be going well at first. But while waiting for her ‘stranger’ at a hotel bar in New York, Emma attracts the attention of a mysterious older man (Bill Nighy), who stays to buy her and Dave drinks long into the night. 24 hours later, the man is found dead, and a murder investigation is launched. Emma and Dave’s role play game now becomes a case that exposes Emma’s double life and leads to Dave being questioned by the police for murder and him uncovering the unbelievable truth: his wife Emma is a professional assassin who has been living a double life for years.
This made for a great premise, one that I was excited for. From the preview, I detected notes of Knight and Day, which was good in its own right. However, as I said, the execution is where things go wrong for the film. For one, Emma’s backstory as a professional assassin isn’t fully explained till the third act of the film, and it is done in a matter-of-fact tone that lessens its impact. In my opinion, it should have been done in the phone conversation that the couple had after Emma went on the run. It would have made more sense. Dave rightfully deserved answers, and Emma was in a emotional state after having to go on the run and be cut off from the life she built that it could have organically worked in that moment. Also, the twist villain reveal, if I am honest, could have also been moved up earlier in the film and used as a motivating factor to make Emma stop running in order to protect her family.
The film does do several things right. I thoroughly enjoyed the first act leading into the couple’s night at the hotel, as well as the events at the hotel. It added layers to Cuoco’s character as she struggled to maintain the dual sides of her life. It was a great setup to lead into everything falling apart and her going on the run. The problem was once she went on the run, everything just fell apart and made the character seem like she jumped out of a plane without a parachute, which wasn’t consistent with her meticulous nature. For years she was able to operate under the radar of law enforcement as well as her former employers who were hunting her. Anyone capable of flying under the radar like that, you would expect to have an exit strategy in place. Granted, she technically did have a strategy, but there were holes in it and would require explanation prior to execution. It would have been more realistic to have her ready to disappear but unable to do so without seeing her family one last time and having her see the danger they were in, prompting her to intervene. Something like that would have aided with the story’s plot hole and help with its operational tempo in my opinion.
To be expected, there are a couple of callbacks to Cuoco’s famous series, such as her character being originally from Nebraska like her Big Bang Theory character and her handler sharing a name after another Big Bang Theory character, and while these things do invoke a bit of nostalgia, it isn’t enough to overcome the lackluster storytelling of the film, which as I said was disappointing, because I was really rooting for it.
