Dirty Weekend | VOD Review

Boiler Plate Weekend: Granier-Deferre’s Familiar, Forgettable Getaway

Inappropriate lovers contending with a criminal while trapped in an isolated locale is hardly an original premise on its own and Christophe Granier-Deferre’s directorial debut, Dirty Weekend, doesn’t supply the necessary energy to make up for its familiarity. Bypassing a theatrical release altogether, even its title has been subjected to reconsideration, initially titled Le Weekend (snagged by Roger Michell for his 2013 film), Neil Labute’s Alice Eve/Matthew Broderick vehicle will most likely superimpose Granier-Deferre’s alternate, as well. Rudimentary, predictable, and sometimes a bit forced in its bid for a comedic affect, you’ll see every narrative twist and turn miles before they land.

Arriving in Normandy from England for a weekend getaway, Mike’s (Jamie Palmer) actions seem immediately suspicious, finagling a car rental with cash rather than a credit card. He’s a married teacher that’s traveled to France to meet his adolescent girlfriend Trish (Kirsty Oswald) on her school trip. They abscond to a cabin, though Mike’s trip to a department store to buy a shovel and other supplies seems suspicious. Upon arriving at their country house, they find a masked man, unconscious, with a bag of gold coins. It looks as if he’s the culprit responsible for the crime scene they passed on the way to the cabin. Realizing the coins are worth some money, they lie to the police that stop by. As the couple fantasizes about their booty, Vincent (Pierre Perrier) wakes up, and is able to gather that Mike had been planning on murdering Trish, but then they catch him and tie him up. But Vincent slyly begins to play the couple off of one another, which isn’t so hard because Trish finds herself instantly smitten with the handsome vagabond.

As the troubled couple at the heart of Dirty Weekend, Mike Palmer and newcomer Kirsty Oswald are both equally serviceable, but the mediocre premise they’re stuck in underutilizes them. There’s a jaunty, comical tone to the dark weirdness that Granier-Deferre initially establishes, enough so that one begins expecting a scenario along the lines of something by Paul Andrew Williams (The Cottage) or Christopher Smith’s Severance, in that it will take cliché tropes and mold them in surprising ways. But no dice. Pierre Perrier, favorite of directors Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr, makes less of an impression here.

First time screenwriter Geoffrey Gunn doesn’t take the material to any daring heights, leaving the three cast members struggling to overcome the stiltedness of the scenario. We’re never led to understand what initially attracted Trish to such a non-entity as Mike, a history teacher, or why he feels killing her is the best way to get rid of her. Likewise, it makes no sense whatsoever that a French car rental agency would permit someone, a foreigner no less, to rent a vehicle without a credit card and based solely on masculine camaraderie for a discreet sexual interlude. Gunn’s noir-ish elements are outdated and out of sync.

A set-up that recalls a variety of films never gets off the ground here, even if it does manage one slight surprise during its finale, though one that isn’t entirely logical. Seems Like Old Times (1980), indeed.

★★/☆☆☆☆☆