Directed By Jorma Taccone

Starring – Jason Segal, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant

The Plot – A dysfunctional married couple (Segal, Weaving) retreats to a secluded cabin to repair their relationship, but each secretly plots to murder the other.

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, sexual assault, pervasive language, and sexual content

Over Your Dead Body | Official Trailer ft. Samara Weaving & Jason Segel | Independent Film Company

POSITIVES

In what is undeniably the most unforeseen career path deviation for MacGruber and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping director, Jorma Taccone, he adapts one of Norwegian’s most unadulteratedly visceral action thrillers in recent memory, seen through the vantage of a deteriorating marriage that has reached the point of no return. Like its original movie, Taccone revels in the destructive tendencies of his morally complex characters, particularly with 87 North’s distinct brand of ruthlessly riveting action sequences, that not only appraise urgency and spontaneity, in the form of tangible availability with the many items pulled from the set designs, that inflict gruesome grandeur on account of the movie’s stomach-turning special effects work, but also highly exaggerated underlining in the commanding of his direction that feels like it plucks attained knowledge under the learning tree of Quentin Tarantino movies, particularly in the ways the movie’s highly effective humor doesn’t humble of humiliate the evidential transparency of its situational stakes. This comedic dominance is probably the single biggest shift from the grittiness of its predecessor, perhaps as a result of Taccone’s helming effortlessly evoking the dark depravity of such an bleakly hopeless form of desperation from this couple, with a heaviness of the aforementioned R-rating that allows unlimited accessibility for a variety of visual and observational gags to the material, that on its own merits is smartly compelling even when it’s not echoing the bickering banter of contemptuous coupling, particularly as a result of a dissection of gender roles within a power coupling, as well as periodic flashbacks in the storytelling, which constantly convey detail context and elaborateness to so many of interacting aspects that we overlook in our real-time interpretation of the couple. While the gimmick can feel slightly excessive in the depths of a 100-minute runtime, especially with an outline that doesn’t fully evade the tedium of repetition, it doesn’t mean that the extensive fleshing out of these sequences doesn’t come with credibility to the developing characterization, in turn leveling expectations with a series of stunningly surmising twists that elevate the material, even with the single biggest of them sacrificed during overly-revealing trailers that shamefully spoiled its audience long before the movie ever began. Beyond this, co-writers Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney also bat a thousand with regards to the interacting dialogue helping to conjure lived-in naturality and uncomfortable awkwardness in the open-faced demeanor, meeting the merits of Segal and Weaving’s intricate performances halfway with poking and prodding that attack each other in their most vulnerable of sensitivities, when their demeanor’s aren’t frequently conveying the anger and resentment that they each feel so candidly for one another. While bickering couples have always had a grave difficulty of translating to the entertainment value of an audience, where too much can feel insufferable, while too little can feel underdeveloped, here the interpretable opportunities afforded during the opening act provide ample insight into aspects that not only absolve either character from being innocent, but also illustrates how the honesty of intimacy can be weaponized to spew combative venom to the magnitude of the ammunition of their arguments, making the vitriolic feelings that both of them feel towards one another all the more vividly realized in the kind of overzealous antagonizing that spares no feelings in their emotional outpouring, elevated increasingly by bountiful performances from Segal, Weaving, and essentially everyone else involved in the ensemble who commit themselves to the maniacal mayhem that Taccone is eagerly enacting. Together, Segal and Weaving share the kind of combustible chemistry that feed feverishly off of each other’s respective energies, where her diagnosing deadpan matches his affability accordingly, in order to articulate one-upmanship that sets the pace for the chess game about to transpire, but individually they each bring their characters to life with meaningful merits that ultimately endear us to them, even despite such a lack of morality threatening to condemn the accessibility of this picture, if not for the fun factors that ultimately define their cemented impact on the project. Segal’s comedic timing has never been questionable, but his expressive ocular outlets command abridged emotionality to the pain and humility that he’s constantly experiencing, feeling frenzied without being frenetic, and Weaving, in already her second film this year, maintains all of the resiliency of her physicality in the Ready or Not franchise, but this time with a coldly stern and calculating poker face that drives the intimidation factor of her personality, with Weaving’s effortless articulation of discontent penetrating Segal with the kind of unflinching disgust that envelopes the loveless demeanor that damns their futuristic outlook with one another.

NEGATIVES

Taccone’s latest definitely exceeds expectations in a lot of valued assessments, but there’s also detracting aspects to the movie’s execution that occasionally stalled the seamlessness of its merited magnitude, particularly some tone-deaf instances with the riskier material that left a bad taste in my mouth, with regards to how it’s presented to the audience. I am not someone who ever feels remotely sensitive when it comes to movies continuously pushing the envelope, however one scene involving the raping of a male character is played contextually for laughs to the audience, and I found it to not only be in bad taste, with regards to how Taccone directs it, but also hypocritical to Hollywood’s double standards, where a female character placed in the very same situation wouldn’t be funny, so why should it be with a man placed in that unfortunate predicament? Considering the incident itself doesn’t lead to a deeper psychological dissection of the victim, nor does it leave a lasting impact beyond a single line of dialogue resurfacing later from the victim, in a vengeful manner, I wish that it was omitted from the finished product, especially considering the magnitude of the material kind of stretches itself thin within the pacing of a 100-minute runtime. It’s kind of strange to properly assess, as even though I found the deviation away from the couple’s conflict during the second and third acts of the movie to be a breath of fresh air to an established plot that was beginning to feel repetitious to its outlining, there’s such a lack of urgency during this timeframe of the movie that eventually catches up to the fluidity of the storytelling, particularly during the never-ending attitude of the movie’s climax, which while entertainingly satisfying in resolving matters, feels like it could’ve properly ended at as many as three different times throughout its staging, in turn taking some of the meaningful momentum along with it. It’s one of those movies that I think would’ve been airtight and nearly perfect at 90 minutes, especially considering the profound insight between our dual protagonists is extinguished midway through the movie, in turn leaving so little development to their predictably enlightening arcs, and though what I would ultimately cut pertains to little things such as scenes persisting on a bit longer than necessary, it surmises the idea that small imperfections lead to grander circumstances, in turn leaving me checking my watch with around twenty minutes remaining in the movie. Finally, it goes without saying that my emotional attachment to Segal’s Dan and Weaving’s Lisa left slightly more to be desired in the articulated characterization between them, where these initially awful and unrelatable people are essentially given free-reign to obnoxiously stir the pot of confrontation between them, without any kind of redeeming qualities to their capture. Part of the problem is definitely the film’s requirement to attach onto attempted murderers, requiring the personalities of Segal and Weaving to work overtime in making them even remotely relatable, but just as much conflict resides in their individualized arcs during the opening act, which can’t even articulate them affectionately when they’re away from each other, and considering the script abandons the exploratory development between them, during the second act, in favor of a bigger and more elaborate set of consequences literally knocking at their door, it undermines the magnitude of their redeeming arcs in ways that could’ve levitated their characterization, instead leaving me clutching for anyone or anything to surmise a much-needed voice of the audience among characters who are worse with each new addition.

OVERALL
Over Your Dead Body is a ferociously funny and violently frenzied dark comedy that makes the most of its minimized concept with enthralling action set pieces, extensive contextual layering, and adult-emphasized gags that make Jorma Taccone’s latest feel like a serviceable throwback to R-rated comedies of a bygone era. Despite tone-deaf tastelessness in some of the material, as well as morally bankrupt characters incapable of investing in, the sporadic limitations are relieved by energetically entertaining performances from its eclectic ensemble, as well as exaggerated gore that pushes absurdities to eleven in Taccone’s execution, submitting a fun and occasionally tense thriller that proves if you can’t live with them, attempt to live without them

My Grade: 7.1 or B-