Now Reading
CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR: As Generic As A Film Can Get

CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR: As Generic As A Film Can Get

CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR As Generic As A Film Can Get

Despite the title being one of the most fascinating I’ve seen in a while, Careful What You Wish For, directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, is about as painfully average as a neo-noir thriller film can get. You will not be surprised or fascinated at any point in this film, where a younger man takes an older woman (Isabel Lucas) as his lover. Though, said older woman isn’t all that much older than him, sadly showing how limited roles for women are in this industry.

This young man, innocent and full of wonder despite being fully grown when the movie starts, is played by Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers. Jonas is desperately trying to make a transition from music to film, and probably the only his or his band’s fans would actually enjoy watching this.

A Movie Only Fans Of The Jonas Brothers Will Like

To be fair to Jonas, though, he’s not terrible in this, just dull. Careful What You Wish For seems like the kind of film that would have fared much better in the early 1990s, when erotic thrillers like Basic Instinct were at its most financially viable. This wants to live up to the legacy of films like that one, but it’s not even entertainingly bad the way cult classics like Showgirls were.

CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR As Generic As A Film Can Get
source: Starz Digital

The performances are so uniformly uninspired that it’s difficult to appreciate them. As it has to be with these kinds of films, there’s a big mystery and conspiracy, and people being blamed for things they didn’t actually do. It’s very formulaic, and you can tell it’s writer Chris Frisina‘s first produced feature script.

Careful What You Wish For did have the potential to become many things far more interesting than it actually was. It could’ve been a satirical take on the kind of films it tries so desperately to imitate. It could’ve showed the limitations of the genre and making commentary about gender roles and the expectations placed on people based on their gender or age. Considering our political climate today, it would’ve been very timely and very much needed in an industry that favors Nick Jonas heavily over Isabel Lucas.

But it doesn’t care about asking any questions or making any point of view that isn’t completely tame. It just wants to be the kind of cheesy thriller that used to be popular, and it doesn’t even really fulfil that. Directors like Brian De Palma or Paul Verhoeven could’ve taken this kind of material and worked wonders with it. However, the film’s ultimate purpose seems to be to show Nick Jonas, publicly famous for being a popstar that valued celibacy and abstinence, have as many sex scenes as possible in a movie that eventually dissolves into a bland conspiracy thriller.

Ways This Film Could’ve Been Improved

Instead of going any further into criticizing a film that doesn’t even deserve that amount of analysis, I’m going to suggest some clear-cut ways this film could’ve developed into something more worthy of the screen, as opposed to a quick cash-grab using the remaining influence of a boy band that was popular almost ten years ago.

It could have been a a straight up parody of the genre and cast genuinely good comedic actors in the parts. Essentially, it could have been the erotic thriller equivalent of Airplane, where absurd situations are handled completely deadpan and serious, thus making the material even funnier. Moreover, they should have recast all of the parts with more competent actors so that it doesn’t come off too much as a Fifty Shades of Grey rip-off. This film is miles better than that one could ever hope to be, but being a copycat of one of the most poorly made films of the past ten years is not something to be proud of.

Lastly, they should have committed to either the erotic thriller or the conspiracy thriller aspect; attempting both at once with no setup is what resulted in any momentum this film could’ve had melting right away. As much as I’ve criticized the actors, it’s really unfair to do so without also noting how little they’re given to work with by the script and direction.

CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR As Generic As A Film Can Get
source: Starz Digital

Careful What You Wish For could very easily be the kind of movie you might select on Netflix when you want some mindless fluff, but it’s certainly not worth a theater ticket. It doesn’t even have the guts to be outright bad, and ends up playing it safe far too often.

What do you think, is Careful What You Wish For a throwback to an earlier time in Hollywood, or just desperately trying to be something that it doesn’t know how to be?

In US theaters, iTunes and On Demand June 10th

 

Does content like this matter to you?


Become a Member and support film journalism. Unlock access to all of Film Inquiry`s great articles. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about cinema - get access to our private members Network, give back to independent filmmakers, and more.

Join now!

Scroll To Top