Monday, July 17, 2023

Release: Home Before Dark

 

Home Before Dark
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Director: Issa Lopez
Writers: Rene Menzie & Harmony Winters
Based on the novel by Riley Sager
Cast: Margot Robbie, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Samara Weaving, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Jonathan Bailey, Sally Field, Suki Waterhouse, Franka Potente, Edward James Olmos, Zach Woods, Kate Mulgrew, Halston Owen, Skylar Betteridge



Budget: $53,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $65,392,094
Foreign Box Office: $51,302,941
Total Profit: $14,190,613

Reaction: Home Before Dark is the 5th straight profitable film for star Margot Robbie. Despite less than stellar reviews (see below), the film also bucks the trend of novel adaptations bombing at the box office along with critics.



"Home Before Dark wastes several good performances with poor storytelling and structure decisions. Instead of choosing a time period to be its main focus, the filmmakers and writers simply refuse to make the important decision, waffling back and forth in a jarring and uncomfortable manner. You'd think once they got Margot Robbie on board it would have been an easy decision regarding where to focus the film, but I guess not."  - Ken Hammerschmidt, Washington Post



"Enough with the constant crosscuts between time periods! It is too jarring and doesn't work. Rather than keep the story exciting and interesting, all it does here is disorient the viewer. If Home Before Dark had been told in a more restrained manner, I think a good film is in there, but it is killed by its structure." - Jeff Stockton, The Roundup



"Similar to (but better than) The Guest List a few seasons back, the narrative structure of this undercuts the tension of the mystery as the every-other-scene time-jumping became nauseating by the end. I’m beginning to wonder if we need to have a referendum on novel adaptations at the studio, or at least how they are approached, because there is just something off here." - Michael St. Felix, The Charlotte Observer​






Rated PG-13 for violence, frightening images, and thematic material.

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