Stranding eight characters in an isolated country house, this film combines a murder mystery parody with a dry satire of politically correct self-help culture. The result is an extremely odd concoction — sinister and hilariously pointed.
Donna (McGovern) is a Californian who runs Adventures In Truth weeks in Serenity Lodge on a moor somewhere in Britain. The wheelchair-bound Candy (Cassidy) doesn't want to be there, and within minutes is fed up with the other students: womanising Felix (Lord), pompous Martha (Stirling), creepy Blossom (Telford), self-help addict Spud (Theobald) and needy Scott (Beck). And then there's Donna's Bosnian assistant (Mornar), who's taking the course but still has to cook and clean. After some confessional therapy, one of them turns up dead. Is it a crime or a cry for help?
The laceratingly funny script is played dead straight. Virtually every scene is loaded with jabs at self-indulgence, blind faith and everyday falseness. Most astutely, the script digs into those cathartic confessions we often feel help us get on with life, when they're actually just lies we tell ourselves. As these people band together and gang up on anyone who disagrees, the film makes some razor-sharp observations on human nature.
But it's so bone dry that it's hard to engage with. The outrageous exchanges ("I was a dot.com millionaire and they can't take that away from me." "But, they did.") are played with straight faces. This keeps us outside, but lets the actors create authentic people out of absurdly stock characters. And since it's not played for laughs, it feels almost like a fly-on-the-wall doc. Think The Office spiced up with murder and menace. Cassidy is especially good in the central role; we follow the week through her repulsed, fascinated, terrified eyes.
Director-cowriter Milton shoots and edits with skill, although he struggles to maintain the balance between the satire, the whodunit and an increasingly Hitchcockian thriller. The cycles of cruelty and humiliation are fairly gruesome, and the "share your truth" mumbo jumbo becomes a bit grating as the film drags on far too long. But it's gripping and hilariously unhinged if you're in the right mood.
