Movie Review: 'The Rental' is a Solid Directorial Debut for Dave Franco

The Rental stars Dan Stevens and Allison Brie along with Jeremy Allen White (Shameless) and Sheila Vand (Snowpiercer), as two couples who go in together on the rental of an Air B and B for a weekend away. Stevens is Charlie and he’s in business with Vand’s Mina. Mina happens to be dating Charlie’s brother Josh, played by White, though the opening scene is a tad flirtatious between Charlie and Mina.

Nevertheless, Charlie is married to Michelle, Allison Brie’s character, and gives off the appearance of being happy within that relationship. Looks can be deceiving and this weekend away with his brother and his attractive business partner will begin to reveal the cracks that exist in what otherwise appear to be strong relationships. Charlie and Josh argue like brothers but Charlie clearly has a grudge as his insults of his little brother have a bite to them. Josh, on the other hand, has a lot of insecurities, whether it’s feeling inferior to Charlie or worrying that he’s not accomplished enough for Mina.

The weekend gets off to an extraordinarily awkward start when the couples arrive at their gorgeous, mountainside abode. Mina had attempted to secure the rental of the vacation home but was refused. Then Charlie put in the same request and his bid was accepted. Mina believes that this is due to her last name being Mohamadini. She asserts this notion with the caretaker, Taylor (Toby Huss), leading to some high level awkwardness.

Thankfully, the moment passes and the couples are able to start their weekend away. Michelle has brought with her some hallucinogenic drugs and her friends are eager to start in on them. She’d prefer to wait until the next night so they compromise, they will get messed up both nights, but she will only partake the following night after a daylong hike. Leaving Charlie, Josh and Mina alone with drugs, alcohol and a hot tub naturally leads to complications, especially after Josh passes out from over-indulgence.

The Rental was co-written and directed by well known actor Dave Franco. In his directorial debut, Franco shows a deftness in his framing of the action. The style is crisp and the pace is tight. The main issue comes at the end when a movie that had thus far been about relationship dynamics.turns violently and brutally into a slasher-horror movie. The seeds are planted throughout and the movie has been marketed as a horror movie but that doesn’t make the shift in gears any less harsh.

Imagine you are watching a mumblecore drama about cheating couples stuck together in a remote location hashing over their faults as lovers, families and friends and then, suddenly Jason Voorhees shows up. It sounds clever but the execution doesn’t quite make it cohesive. That said, I do like enough of The Rental to forgive some of this. A lot of that forgiveness is owed to the film score which, in the final act, really comes to life in creating an unbearable atmosphere that had me twisting in my seat.

It also helps that I think the movie has strong ambitions with this slasher character. The final moments of the movie, over the end credits, go a long way toward providing a metaphorical context for what this slasher character is all about. The mask wearing killer could arguably stand in for the myriad ways in which our actions harm the people we profess to care about the most and I like the idea of using a slasher-horror-monster as a metaphor for the emotional trauma we inflict on one another with our careless actions.

The Rental is available via IFC Films and most on-demand rental services beginning on July 24th.