The Rental

Starring: Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, Toby Huss
Directed by: Dave Franco
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two couples rent a vacation home for a weekend away, but they quickly find themselves in a horrifying situation.

Review:

Tim: So, a quick side note- The Rental is the 4,000th movie I've seen. I normally would have picked a... you know... good movie to watch, but I lost track of where I was. So, this monumental milestone was celebrated with a below average horror movie. I didn't realize it until after I was finished, so I knew this wasn't a very good movie. I was quite disappointed when I realized the number. So, suffice to say, this movie is disappointing in many regards.

I was intrigued to see this first and foremost for the cast. However, I admit I was very curious to see what Dave Franco would do as writer/director here. The answer: not much. His direction was fine, if a bit pedestrian. It seems like he had an idea for what he wanted this movie to be, but it gets completely lost in the execution. I'm not entirely sure why we should care about this story or these characters. The ending of the film is shrouded in mystery and it seems to provide answers that felt not illuminating in the least. It wasn't of a case of "Oh, I want to know more!" It was more of a case of, "Huh, this isn't satisfying in the least. Why did I waste my time here?" This is Franco's directorial debut and I have to say it was a fairly inauspicious start. I didn't see much here to suggest he should continue down this path. Maybe he has talent that just needs to emerge, but it felt like literally dozens of directors could have done a significantly better job with this movie. As far as debuts go, this is one of the more lackluster ones I've seen.

The cast was the biggest reason why I was excited to see this. I really like Dan Stevens from his time on Legion and Alison Brie will always be a favorite for her incredible work on Community. The pairing of these two actors I know mostly from television was too good to pass up. I suppose they were both decent here, although I don't think they had great material. Their characters are slightly more fleshed out than what we'd see in 1980s or 1990s horror movies, but they still felt far too thin. I might have understood them to some extent, but I sure didn't care about them in the least. Their relationship dynamics made me yawn. It was fun seeing Stevens and Brie in these roles, but their strengths weren't leveraged and it felt like just another forgettable role for both of them. There's not much here to get excited about. I didn't really care for Sheila Vand- she seemed out of place in her role. I don't think she added much to the film. The same can be said for Jeremy Allen White. He didn't add much. I think this is a role Franco could have played much better himself. White had some decent moments, but nothing here suggested he'll do big things. I did enjoy Toby Huss' work. His role was critical and he achieves what he needed to with the role. As this is a fairly self-contained film, the fact that the cast doesn't quite meet expectations significantly hurts the movie.

The story itself was surprisingly bland. It feels like it takes forever to get to the real drama of the story and then the ending feels a bit rushed. The film is quite short at only 1 hour, 28 minutes. I rarely wish for longer movies, but it felt like Franco cut a bit too much out. It would have been nice to get an extra 5-8 minutes to more fully explain things at the end. As is, it feels like the movie tries to set up a sequel that no one is asking for and will undoubtedly never get made. It was weird.

The Rental is a totally forgettable film that doesn't work very well. It's never a terrible movie- I never hated it for a second. It's just a deeply boring, bland one. It's not the kind of film you want to celebrate a major milestone with, but it's also not the kind of film you want on a forgettable Tuesday. This movie needed to be better.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Her Smell, Lucy in the Sky