Dead in a Week (or Your Money Back) review: A morbid premise undercut by mundane comedy
The debut from writer-director Tom Edmunds relies too much on familiar tropes to do justice to its provocative set-up
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Your support makes all the difference.Dir: Tom Edmunds; Starring: Aneurin Barnard, Freya Mavor, Tom Wilkinson, Christopher Eccleston. Cert 15, 90 mins.
William (Aneurin Barnard) is in the middle of his tenth suicide attempt. His hands are gripped around the railings of a bridge, ready to let go, when a stranger steps out of the shadows. Yet, this is no Clarence, the angel from It’s a Wonderful Life, here to show him the light. Leslie (Tom Wilkinson) is an assassin who, after a drop in demand, has pivoted his services to those who would like their own lives to be ended. There is a contract to be signed (non-refundable), in return for a promise: “dead in a week, or your money back”.
It’s a morbid premise for a film that gently tips its world into dark fantasy: one where a bad day at work can involve the murder of two innocent people, a conference can feature such talks as “Making it Look Like Suicide” and “Behind the Iron Curtain”, and where firearms are lent out at the reception desk like spare clipboards.
But this, perhaps, makes Dead in a Week (or Your Money Back), the debut of writer-director Tom Edmunds, sound far more entertaining than it really is.
It’s an act of self-sabotage, almost, to introduce an idea this provocative – is this peak capitalism, when even your own death must be outsourced? – only to muffle its intrigue with familiar tropes. The result feels a little empty. The humour relies almost entirely on the contrast between the film’s dark themes and humdrum British life, as everyone negotiates life-and-death matters with steadfast politeness.
A few assassin spoofs are littered here and there, while Christopher Eccleston plays a Cockney boss who appears to be skim-reading the script to a Guy Ritchie movie. The actor is struggling with the material he’s given, particularly the bizarre, and borderline tasteless, tangent about Michael J Fox.
Our hero, meanwhile, is a struggling writer with a meek personality, who requires only the inspiration of a woman to have his world view utterly transformed. While Ellie (Freya Mavor) doesn’t quite fall under the category of Manic Pixie Dream Girl, what we learn about her seems only to serve William’s personal development. She’s vulnerable to the point that she connects with him, but not so much that she can’t provide a steady support system.
It’s Wilkinson who provides the film’s real empathetic core, uncovering a sense of tragedy to a man stuck on the belief that “killing people gives me a reason to live”. It’s not, however, enough to give reason to this film’s miscalculated handling of its themes.
Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back) will be released in UK cinemas on 16 November
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