Film Marie O'Sullivan's Film Reviews

Film Review: Welcome Home (2018)

Welcome Home poster

Aaron Paul and Emily Ratajkowski make the mistake of booking a secluded villa for a quiet getaway – and encounter a whole different take on the bunny boiler

 

With their relationship on the rocks, Bryan (Aaron Paul) and Cassie (Emily Ratajkowski) rent a dream villa in the Italian countryside in the hope that some time away from everything will help them to heal the wounds. Enter Federico (Riccardo Scamarcio) into this idyll, whose presence immediately stirs jealousy and mistrust between the couple. And that’s just for starters.

Federico is more than just a handsome, helpful stranger though. It’s not long before his more sinister side emerges, and Scamarcio is great at switching seamlessly between charming and creepy. Our lead couple work really well together too. There is good chemistry between them, which becomes believably strained as the stresses brought by their new-found friend – and their own history together – take their toll.

Welcome Home is perhaps a little clichéd in its storytelling, with some very convenient coincidences driving the plot, but at just over 90 minutes it moves along pretty swiftly for the most part and kept me entertained. In fact, the third act at first seems to peak relatively quickly, but then descends into all kinds of madness which I hadn’t seen coming.

It’s a bit of a shame that the cinematography doesn’t quite do justice to the beautiful scenery considering they went all the way to Italy to film, and personally I could have done without the numerous gratuitous scenes of Emily Ratajkowski in the shower which added nothing to the narrative, but there you are. And I’m certainly going to think twice before booking Airbnb in the future …

Welcome Home will be available on VOD in the UK on 12th November

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