Windfall

2022 - 3 - 18

Windfall (unknown)

“Windfall” is the kind of acting experiment that usually works for me. Trap three talented actors on a single set and bounce them off each other.

And the CEO knows that he’s probably on a number of enemies lists given how much downsizing he’s done to afford a place like this one. So much so that when he disappears for a long nighttime conversation between Collins and Segel, the film starts to sag. This isn’t exactly “Dog Day Afternoon.” It’s clear that the man isn’t in this for violence, and the CEO homeowner even tries to talk him through what to do next. However, the way McDowell and Segel approach this guy allows Plemons to steal the show as the most confident person in the room. And the premise here is strong enough to keep the film afloat for about an hour as these very different acting energies collide in the middle of the room. He starts to get a little more serious about the business at hand when he rifles through an office and finds some money hidden in a book.

Netflix’s 'Windfall' Is a Perfect Class-Rage Noir (unknown)

A tech billionaire confronts his burglar in the Netflix's latest thriller.

But whereas The One I Love had a science-fiction twist, Windfall is propelled by a real-life crisis: the gaping chasm between the incredibly rich and the rest of us, and the impossibility of bridging it unscathed. Despite its gleaming setting, Windfall strikes the tone of a noir, its story suffused with a cynicism as sweeping as the vistas its mansion overlooks. Watching Segel’s burglar bumble his way into increasingly grim circumstances, I was reminded of The Edukators, the 2004 German-Austrian crime drama about a trio of young radicals who decide to teach the wealthy a lesson by breaking into their homes just to unsettle them. We learn that the origin of the billionaire’s fortune is an algorithm for layoffs and that he doesn’t feel bad about having created it; he wastes little time asking the thief if he was one of the unlucky who lost their jobs because of his work. And although this man is a total amateur, he piles crime on top of crime, taking the well-heeled couple hostage. And the burglar is an oaf; he struggles to unclasp the wife’s purse, can’t keep his boots tied, and has tantrums every time something doesn’t go his way, which is frequently.

NPR Cookie Consent and Choices (unknown)

The Netflix movie, directed by Charlie McDowell, follows three unnamed characters played by Jason Segel, Jesse Plemons and Lily Collins.

You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic.

Netflix’s thriller Windfall ponders the value of Mark Zuckerberg (unknown)

The new thriller Windfall stars Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog), Lilly Collins (Emily in Paris), and Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) in a tense, ...

The latest film from director Charlie McDowell (The One I Love), now streaming on Netflix, is a Hitchcockian throwback, an exercise in restrained, clear filmmaking and the tension that arises when you put three people and a gun in a room together. In the ensuing one-act play, the real hostage isn’t a person, it’s the idea of the meritocracy, as Windfall slowly becomes a class-rage thriller about holding the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world prisoner. it’s only when the couple changes their plans and arrive to find him in their home that the film’s tense, 90-minute negotiation kicks off.

Jesse Plemons, Lily Collins, and Jason Segel Play Against Type in Basic but Enjoyable Thriller (unknown)

Jesse Plemons, Lily Collins, and Jason Segel star in 'Windfall,' which allows them to play against type in a fairly basic thriller.

Segel, Plemons, and Collins are solid enough to make this waiting around worthwhile, but just barely. When Nobody tells CEO and Wife that to get rid of him, he’ll need $150,000 to start a new life somewhere, CEO and Wife have to tell him that won’t be enough, and have to help bring his ransom up to an acceptable number. By the third act, the film introduces another character, but this addition only seems to exist to up the stakes, making him more a pawn than an actual character that can add to this dynamic.

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Windfall review – talky Netflix crime thriller brings little reward (The Guardian)

Jesse Plemons, Jason Segel and Lily Collins are wasted in a ho-hum Covid-shot crime drama that struggles to distinguish itself.

There’s a crackle missing from the dialogue, the script outdone by McDowell’s crisp, bright visuals (it’s a hell of a house) and a fun, atmospheric score from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans. There’s never really enough for the underserved trio of actors to sink their teeth into, although they all manage to coast comfortably enough – Plemons subverting his nice and quiet shtick to become loud and odious, Collins trying to bring depth to a bored trophy wife with edge and Segel further scuzzing it up to distance himself from any studio comedy associations. The Covid-conceived and shot film, which could have easily been a stage play, then cosies the three up for the duration, spatting with each other as they figure out how to survive. But it’s also a question that many of us have been asking for the last almost decade of film, the actor fading from the comedy A-list and far, far into the background.