Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Writer: Rachel Hallett Hardcastle
Based on the novel by Maria Hummel
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Shia LaBeouf, Rinko Kikuchi, Ben McKenzie, Alan Cumming, Alan Tudyk, Yvonne Orji, Aidan Gillen, Michelle Trachtenberg
Plot: In modern-day Los Angeles, Maggie Richter (Jennifer Lawrence) is a writer and editor in the Rocque Museum's public relations department. Maggie aspires to be a journalist young but works at Rocque, a renowned modern art museum.
Soon, the Rocque will be hosting the newest gallery exhibition of renowned visual artist Kim Lord (Rinko Kikuchi). When Maggie arrives there, she speaks with Yegina (Yvonne Orji), Maggie's friend and the PR worker. That morning, Yegina says that Kim Lord didn't come to the museum for press photos. Reluctantly, Maggie calls her ex-boyfriend, Greg Shaw Ferguson (Shia LaBeouf), who's secretly Kim's boyfriend, to ask if he knows where Kim is. Greg doesn't answer the phone.
Maggie is at a meeting with her boss, Jayme West (Alan Cumming). Maggie talks about Still Lives, Kim's exhibition that will be premiering soon. The paintings in the collection depict famous female murder victims of the twentieth century. Through the works, Kim wanted to examine how the media has luridly exploited such stories. Kim has even agreed to donate the paintings to the Rocque and could sell them for millions.
At Rocque's pre-exhibition gala, Maggie's assigned to speak with a journalist named Kevin Rhys (Aidan Gillen). Maggie and Kevin quickly form a good rapport. The museum's director addresses the crowd, thanking them for coming, and speaks with excitement about Kim Lord's work. Maggie realizes that Kim herself has still not appeared at the exhibition, which is strange. She'd usually be expected to address the crowd due to Kim's rep.
Maggie exposits upon Kim's life and work. Kim's method usually entails taking photographs of herself and then making paintings based on the pictures. Kim always destroys the images once she's finished. Kim's relatively young. After the works from her first big exhibition sold for very high prices at auction, she became renowned and thriving. Maggie and Kim met through the LA scene, although they don't interact much anymore since Greg left Maggie for Kim.
Maggie, Yegina, and Kevin see the Still Lives paintings before the rest of the gala members are let into the gallery. One of the arts is of Roseann Quinn, murdered in 1973. The media focused on her because she's an unmarried, sexually active woman who's murdered by a date. The media misogynistic all framed her story as representing the dangers of being a promiscuous woman. Other victims in the paintings include Kitty Genovese, Bonnie Bakley, Nicole Simpson, and Elizabeth Short. The illustrations remind Maggie of Nikki Bolio, a friend from Maggie's youth in Vermont. When they were still young adults, Nikki began participating in illegal drug trafficking. Nikki, possibly feeling guilty, spoke to a reporter about the drug trafficking. She was found murdered after the news story was published. The murderer was never found.
The next day, Maggie wakes up reading some articles about Kim Lord's disappearance, who still hasn't been located. Maggie heads to the Rocque for work as Bas Terrant (Alan Tudyk), the museum director, addresses the staff. LAPD detectives arrive to interview the museum's staff members. To keep the peace, Bas tells everyone to remain calm and cooperate with the detectives.
The detectives interview Maggie but sneakingly ask her about Kim and Greg. Instantly, Maggie becomes aware that the detectives may suspect her harming Kim out of jealousy. When they ask her when she last saw Kim, Maggie replies that she saw Kim going to the Rocque two days earlier.
Later, Kevin arrives at the Roque to privately converses with Maggie. Kevin thinks that Kim may have faked her own disappearance to increase notoriety for the Still Lives exhibition. Maggie supposes that that may be possible. Kevin decides to continue investigating Kim's disappearance and maybe write a newspaper article about it.
Maggie speaks with her coworkers. Some of them fear that something terrible happened to Kim. Some wonder if Greg's in some way responsible for the disappearance. Some believe that the departure is a publicity stunt or an avant-garde extension of the Still Lives exhibition.
The next day, Saturday, Maggie goes to a ranch near LA. Her friend Kaye is hosting a horse-riding party there to celebrate the fact that Kay recently survived cancer. Maggie sees Greg's also present at the party.
Greg talks to Maggie privately. He says that he doesn't know what has happened to Kim and that he's worried. Maggie notes he's also concerned because he is the police's main suspect. Greg hides being upset by that remark and gives Maggie a flash drive containing Kim's photos used for the Still Lives paintings. He says that he couldn't bring himself to destroy them, as Kim usually does herself. Maggie, believing Greg's innocence and still feeling love for him, takes the flash drive, agreeing to hold on to it. Maggie briefly thinks about her and Greg's relationship. Greg's mother, Theresa, who's now deceased, never approved of Greg's girlfriends. Still, she especially disapproved of Maggie's semi-rural upbringing. Maggie then thinks about the rumors that there's a man who was stalking Kim.
The next day, Sunday. Maggie decides not to become involved in the mystery of Kim's disappearance in any way. Maggie receives a phone call from Greg's attorney, Cherie Rhys, who coincidentally happens to be Kevin Rhys' brother. Cherie says that Greg has been arrested under suspicion of killing or kidnapping Kim. All communication will now be done through Cherie. Later, Yegina advises Maggie to contact Kevin again, both about Kim and about a possible date. However, Maggie informs Yegina that Kevin, unfortunately, is engaged to be married.
Maggie thinks about Kim's plan to donate the paintings. It only now strikes her as strange. Years ago, since her last gallery show, Kim didn't have much money, and Greg's gallery struggling. Maggie wonders if Greg killed Kim out of anger. He wanted her to sell the paintings. Kevin and Maggie have another private meeting. After seeing the final Still Lives painting Maggie hasn't yet seen, Kevin now believes that something really did happen to Kim. Kim expressed some kind of premonition through Still Lives. Unable for more progress, Kevin decides to stop investigating. Maggie decides that she's to begin investigating the disappearance herself. Maggie also thinks about a semi-recent art piece that the Rocque hosted. Guests were strapped into a lethal injection chair. The piece, entitled Execution, was meant to speak out against the death penalty.
At home, Maggie plugs in the flash drive and looks at the staged photographs of Kim that Kim used for the Still Lives paintings. Maggie finds nothing suspicious. Maggie goes to work. Maggie's boss, Jayme, tells Maggie not to interact with the press members, as Rocque doesn't want to become the focus of negative media attention. Maggie goes to the Still Lives exhibition and looks at the final painting. Maggie is struck by the fact that some painting elements weren't in the photos and seemed painted in a hurry. Maggie then converses with Evie Long (Michelle Trachtenberg), the woman at the museum who handles the shipping and receiving of art. She asks Evie to help research the monetary values and ownership histories of Kim's previous artworks. Soon after, a man named Ray Hendricks (Ben McKenzie) approaches Maggie. He's a private investigator hired by the museum owners to find Kim. Maggie says that she is free to talk with him about the case tomorrow.
Maggie wonders if the museum's director, Bas Terrant, might have something to do with Kim's disappearance. So, Maggie makes a request from another department for Bas' biographical info, saying that it's for a promotional pamphlet.
When she returns to work, she reads Bas' biographical info. In an interview, Bas talked about how wealthy collectors play an increasingly integral role in determining which art's essential. Maggie dislikes this idea. Maggie spies on Bas's personal planner and sees that, apparently, he recently had a meeting with a man named Steve Curtain. Later, in a private conversation, Jayme confides to Maggie that Jayme was briefly abducted when she was a young teenager and that her abductor recently was released from prison. Jayme advises Maggie to not do anything based on love for Greg.
Maggie does an internet search for Steve Curtain but finds nothing. Maggie then receives a message from Evie, who says that she saw something strange while researching Kim's paintings.
The next day, Maggie meets the private investigator, Ray Hendricks. The meeting's brief, but Hendricks reveals to Maggie a notable finding: Kim was pregnant when she disappeared.
Maggie meets with Evie, who's finished researching the sales history of Kim's paintings. Many of the names aren't recognized collectors. Evie theorizes a single person may be buying up the paintings under pseudonyms to drive up their prices and amass a valuable unique collection of them.
Maggie learns the name Steve Curtain refers to a famous Cezanne painting that features curtains, jugs, and fruit. The three elements that Kim's hastily painted into the last Still Lives painting. Maggie wonders if this is some type of clue or warning. Later, Maggie theorizes that wealthy art collector Steve Goetz may be the person who was collecting Kim's artworks. In that case, he might've killed her over her decision not to sell her newest paintings. Maggie goes to meet with Steve Goetz, but the meeting yields no conclusive evidence.
Maggie meets with Hendricks, who informs her that Kim's dead body was buried in a nearby park mere hours ago. Maggie's devastated. She and Hendricks converse for a while, and Hendricks reveals that he found out about Nikki Bolio while researching Maggie. Hendricks says that Maggie was the person to talk to the press about the drug smuggling, not Nikki. Hendricks warns Maggie away from figuring out who killed Kim, as it'd be dangerous and foolhardy. He also says that she has too close of a personal connection to the case to see it clearly. When Maggie returns home to her apartment, she sees that some objects have been moved, meaning someone must have broken in and then left. Maggie realizes that her cell phone's missing. Maggie suspects that the intruder must be Kim's killer.
Maggie sees a news article that police released Greg and ruled him out as a suspect. The medical examiner report stated that Kim had died on Friday morning, while Greg met with clients. Maggie meets with Greg, and although they comfort each other, it seems that Maggie's romantic feelings haven't resurged with Greg.
Later, Maggie hears some of her coworkers gossiping about Brent Patrick, a successful artist who sometimes works with the Rocque. This gossip leads Maggie to wonder if Brent and Kim had been having an affair. If that had been the case, it might've been possible that Kim might have been pregnant with Brent's child.
From the medical examiner, Maggie finds out about found substantial amounts of a tranquilizer in Kim's body. Calling Hendricks, Maggie asks if the substance was sodium thiopental, which Hendricks doesn't know. Maggie says that that compound name sounds familiar to her. She thinks it may have been in some written material she copyedited for a Rocque exhibition. Maggie theorizes that Evie, who handles all of the physical materials for the artwork, may have kept the vial of sodium thiopental used in the Executed show as a tool in murdering Kim.
Maggie becomes more sure of her theory, mainly because, according to rumor, Evie may be in love with Brent. She may have killed Kim due to Kim and Brent's affair if it's real. Maggie and Evie are scheduled to tour Janis Rocque's estate, after whom the Rocque Museum is named after. After the tour, Evie is expected to go to Amsterdam to help show that the Rocque is facilitating. Maggie realizes that Evie might stay in Amsterdam to evade arrest. Maggie manages to send out a hidden message to Jayme, Hendricks, and law enforcement about Evie.
Maggie, Evie, and some of their other coworkers arrive at the estate of Janis Rocque. Maggie, Evie, and the others take a tour of the estate. In the estate's back courtyard, Maggie confronts Evie directly, hoping to secretly record Evie's response with the recording device in Maggie's bag. Maggie feels unsettled, as she can relate to Evie's jealous motives. Maggie wonders if she could have ever done such a thing. Evie tries to kill Maggie by pushing her into a hole in the courtyard. The hole is part of an art installation filled with glass sculptures shaped like apples. Maggie lands on the glass apples and is badly cut but doesn't die.
Maggie awakes in the hospital. She was severely cut by the glass apples, and she nearly died, but the glass did not cut any major arteries. Police have apprehended Evie for Kim's ruder, but Evie has refused to confess to the crime. When a police detective asks Maggie if Evie intentionally pushed her into the hole, Hendricks signals her to say no. Maggie is confused. Still, she heeds the signal and says no.
Maggie's mother comes to LA to take care of her. Meanwhile, the media focuses on Evie as the new prime suspect of the case.
Maggie returns to Vermont temporarily. Hendricks contacts her and tells her that he told her not to tell anyone Evie had tried to kill her. Then, Maggie would become the center of media attention and would lose personal autonomy/identity.
Maggie wonders if Evie wanted to be caught because she craved the resultant attention and status. Maggie is proud of herself for her courage and resourcefulness, and she decides to return to Los Angeles.
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