Take Me, 2017.
Directed by Pat Healy.
Starring Taylor Schilling, Pat Healy, Alycia Delmore, and Jim O’Heir.
SYNOPSIS:
Ray is a fledgling entrepreneur who specializes in high-end simulated abductions. He jumps at the chance when a mysterious client contracts him for a weekend kidnapping with a handsome payday at the end. But the job isn’t all that it seems.
Take Me is quite the madcap ride; it puts an interesting spin on bizarre roleplay fantasies that some people crave for whatever strange reason. Typically, these dream scenarios are usually built into relationships or something more sexual (hello BDSM and the continuously awful crop of Fifty Shades nonsense that hell-spawned from it), but never before have I heard of a person actively employing someone to simulate a real-life kidnapping of him or herself. The desire can be for numerous reasons, ranging from fulfilling a demented and honestly disturbing pleasure of danger and pain, or even something curative. An overweight man enlists the “business” to steal him away to an undisclosed location and is force-fed a disgusting amount of grease-soaked double bacon cheeseburgers all with the intent that the subsequent puking and unhealthy immediate side effects will forever quell his satiation to indulge in bodily harmful eating habits. Does it justify this weird behavior? I suppose it’s up to the viewer and certainly makes for a good debate.
Anyway, the backbone of this once booming underground business is Ray Moody (character actor Pat Healy from the hidden gem Cheap Thrills, also pulling double duty directing the film), who is currently undergoing some problems with his unorthodox line of work. He is in the middle of relocating his set up due to allegations of physical abuse leveled at him that he claims were asked for by his client, is also struggling to find a bank that will give him a loan to restart up his crazy endeavor (an early amusing scene actually sees Ray trying to weasel his way into money and slyly talk an investor into this very prospect), and is generally down on his luck.
That quickly changes when a mysterious businesswoman named Anna St. Blair (Taylor Schilling of Orange is the New Black fame) calls up with an inquiry about being kidnapped for an entire weekend, also prepared to pony up $5000 for the job, half up front and the other half afterward. The catch is that she demands to be slapped during the experience, which does cause some hesitation on the part of Ray but not before he decides to go through with it as he seems to have no other useful qualities that could get him a decent job and seems to be tired of borrowing money from his brother-in-law.
What ensues is a short-lived and tightly paced (Take Me wisely doesn’t overstay his welcome with its admittedly thin premise) series of twists and turns. Truthfully, it’s not hard to consistently guess each new plot development, but there is delirious joy in watching both actors put in fantastic performances acting out this roleplay that soon goes wrong and spirals out of control from a game into reality. The script by first-time feature writer Mike Makowsky toes the line between gallows humor (that honestly could possibly downright offend people that are not familiar with traumatic fantasies being role-played for enjoyment) and never losing sight of adding to the discussion on the morality, sanity, and mental health of those that seek out this stuff for fun. A good portion of Take Me also analyzes the character of Ray and whether he is a good person or bluntly just a fucking lunatic, which is certainly up to debate, but Healy keeps the conversation going after the film ends by implementing a smart closing shot.
The problem with Take Me is that for much of running time the thriller unspools, there is a sensation that the movie is trying too hard to misdirect the audience and spring twist upon twist on them, which again, is a bit of a misfire considering that it’s fairly obvious where things are going. Furthermore, with each new revelation, the believability of the film drastically dives downward, completely descending into silliness. The script probably could have used a rewrite to better focus on the aspects that work while eliminating what clearly doesn’t.
Take Me starts off far stronger than it ends, but the one constant throughout are the loud and fierce back-and-forth exchanges between Healy and Schilling playing out this absurd story within a story; they successfully carry the movie even when it becomes dumb. It’s also simply a refreshingly zany film, putting an interesting twist on the unorthodox roleplay fantasies that already rub most everyday people the wrong way.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder – Chief Film Critic of Flickering Myth. Check here for new reviews weekly, friend me on Facebook, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
Originally published May 12, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
