Rich Flu

Bluesky

There’s a bit of a Don’t Look Up flavour to Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s high concept satirical thriller, which has the cheek to open with a scene in which a major film company executive is confronted with a series of high concept thriller pitches that she instantly loathes. It is blunt and unapologetic in the delivery of its central premise, not caring to justify it scientifically, narratively or morally. It doesn’t need to abide by the rules because it’s giving the people what they want – isn’t it? Obnoxious people dying off directly because of their wealth. There is certainly some pleasing schadenfreude, but it doesn’t have the nerve to go all out, and ultimately it’s not as clever as it thinks it is.

The aforementioned film company executive, played by a committed Mary Elizabeth Winstead, is named Laura Palmer. Everybody makes the same Twin Peaks references, thinking themselves very clever indeed; not one person mentions Rebel Without A Cause. Laura has a bad relationship with her daughter and a worse relationship with her mother. There’s a ghost of affection between her and her ex (Rafe Spall), but her closest bond seems to be with her personal assistant, Christian (César Domboy), at least for as long as he remains absolutely loyal. That’s the rule that other people don’t understand: she must always come first. Except for other rich people, that is. They understand it well enough, even as they screw her over. One man is about to do that more severely than anyone has before.

One can recognise the rich people here, as in the real world, not simply because of their particular style fads and their carelessness, but because they all look distinctly miserable, even before the virus takes hold. If it is a virus. No-one really knows. [Incidentally, at the time of writing, the EU is approaching a vote on whether or not to let Bayer unleash AI-designed viruses and bacteria outside its labs for the first time.) The sole exception, a mysterious man who positively revels in his own awfulness, is one Sebastian Snail. In lesser hands he would have been a pantomime villain. In those of Timothy Spall he is believable and deeply unsettling. It’s an inspired cameo which serves as an anchor for the rest of the film but, sadly, leaves it struggling to keep up.

Is Snail responsible for the outbreak? One has to wonder, as he gives every one of his guests at an Arctic gathering a copy of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, as well as quickly disposing of his own fortune. We subsequently see wealthy people spiral into panic as they begin to take in what’s happening. Some try to dispose of their assets; others seek refuge in remote places where they imagine that they can escape infection. It’s not quite clear if ordinary people are also effected, but they seem to believe they are. Laura sees a headline about plutophobia, which she has to look up, as people like her begin to be hunted in an effort to keep the disease at bay. Some of her peers, especially those with English accents – old money – talk dismissively about peasants rising up. The inevitably difficulty with the film asking us to believe these things is that no such spontaneous revolution has occured in recent history despite people coming under similar pressure, but it works well enough as an invitation to imagine the private paranoia of those who have removed themselves from contact with wider society.

From an aesthetic perspective, the elegance of rhe wealthy and the chaos of the action scenes are both well presented, indulgent but pleasing. Winstead manages to be interesting without being overly sympathetic. What we get is generally well handled – it’s just disappointing because its most interesting threads are quickly abandoned and the final act just fizzles out, squandering its potential, as Gaztelu-Urrutia mistakenly assumes that his characters are compelling regardless of the situation. Ultimately it’s the concept that will grab viewers; the film misses out on the chance to be great because it fails to develop that further. It’s crying out for a gutsier remake.

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