Bad Times At The El Royale

This review may contain spoilers!

This is a highly entertaining and shocking thriller that with a few more drafts for the screenplay or a little more direction in the editing room would have been truly spectacular. I would give Bad Times At The El Royale a 6.5/10.

Bad Times At The El Royale is a thriller about a group of strangers who all choose to stay at the El Royale hotel, only to discover that no one is whom they seem and neither is the place they are staying in. What works for this feature is the unique characters and how they interact with one another, there is special care placed here to avoid roles that feel stereotypical or done to type and that makes this movie a treat to watch. Beyond this, there are a number of surprising moments that will have you gripped, or even fearing for your favourite role as you wonder which body will hit the floor next. The soundtrack for the El Royale is stellar, hearing tracks like 'I Got A Feeling' or 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' sets up the time period of the film and transports you there effortlessly.

Cynthia Erivo, who played Darlene Sweet, is one of the few characters who is true to herself throughout the feature; Erivo takes a role who is unsure of herself and transforms her to a woman confident in her own self-worth and strong in the face of a life or death situation. Jon Hamm, who played Dwight Broadbeck, has one of the best twists in the film and that's all thanks to how Hamm plays the transition of his role; Hamm's aloof and arrogant salesman melts away before the eyes of the audience into a heroic FBI agent of principle and self-sacrifice. Lewis Pullman, who played Miles Miller, steals the show in a greater number of his scenes and contends very heavily with Bridges for the standout role; Pullman wears his character's guilt like a glove and shows such deep horror at what's he done and seen that you can't help but cast him as a tragic figure. Xavier Dolan, who played Buddy Sunday, is a nasty minor antagonist in the backstory of Erivo's Darlene; Dolan's portrayal of a character consumed in self-importance makes for a very nasty figure who really challenges Erivo well.

However, the best performance came from Jeff Bridges, who played Father Daniel Flynn. This is one of those characters whose big twist you see coming but that's rather intentional both in the script and the performance. Bridges manages to convey the subtle traits of an older man suffering from dementia while also loosely fronting his priest ruse. As the act of being a priest slips away we see the scoundrel with a heart of gold that this character truly is. He is a sharp-minded criminal despite dementia, and the way he manages to achieve his goals while remaining kind to those who show him kindness in return makes for quite the charismatic role.

This film crafts the set up for a great thriller with interesting characters and some very interesting twists and turns but it makes some distinct mistakes. Most noteworthy was the way this film didn't really know how to structure itself, the first act is quite bland to watch until the death of Dwight kicks of the second act, but even that gets lost as the film chops up the pacing with flashbacks that feel very jarring in how their place. These moments carry throughout the feature even interrupting the major conflict in the final act of the film. This film needed to prioritise what was important to say and work out a sound strategy for how to present that. By choosing the presentation style that the film went with we only got a surface presentation for some characters or were left wondering why certain elements of the plot were never explained; there was no significant focus on the Summerspring sisters' backstory, the sinister management never went any further than a surface mention and the minute Dwight stops being important the FBI arc disappears into the wind. Leaving the audience wondering after things like this meant that it was disappointing when the cult leader was the major antagonist of the film when the audience didn't feel strongly connected to this particular plot thread. The problem with too many characters each having a subplot is that you hedge a bet when you say one if more important than the other. The cinematography seen throughout felt disappointingly washed out and there were a number of sequences where you just felt the presence of the camera, an experience that really drew me out of the events. The editing did alright, though it was a little slow pacing wise; the real tragedy was those cut to black title cards that functioned as a transition between scenes and acts.

Dakota Johnson and Cailee Spaeny, who played Emily Summerspring and Rose Summerspring respectively, were by far some of the more boring members of the main cast; Johnson, in particular, has proven to not show a great range of emotion in past films and that trend continues in El Royale. Chris Hemsworth, who played Billy Lee, didn't really cut it as the film's antagonist; Hemsworth just doesn't sell it as the overzealous wandering cult leader, this was a case of the wrong antagonist for the feature or poor casting. Nick Offerman, who played Felix O'Kelly, is woefully underused in the feature which means you never really come to appreciate his character; Offerman's role needed to be shown more with Bridges so you could appreciate their relationship and history with one another.