A couple’s marriage is falling apart. So is their house. Their plan is to get the house fixed up so that they can sell it and then have enough money to separate. Toward that goal, they decide to rent out their guesthouse. But things go sideways when a Middle Eastern brother and sister and their large steamer trunk arrive to take up residence. The couple rapidly develops suspicions about the siblings, but are their doubts manifestations of latent Islamophobia or a rational response to truly odd behaviors and strange activities?
A terrific cast props up this provocative dramedy. Suspense builds organically as the disintegrating couple begins questioning their own motives, observations, projections, and social influences as more and more bits of circumstantial evidence point to their guesthouse being inhabited by would-be terrorists. Each discovery furthers their suspicions, and as viewers following along in their footsteps, we, too, become enmeshed in growing paranoia and self-doubt. Do we, like this liberal, mixed-race couple, perhaps also suffer from latent Islamophobia, or are we editing what our eyes tell us because of self-doubt? The film’s late shift into science fiction, however, obviates the need for any of this interesting line of questioning. The genre switch provides vague explanations for the film’s provocations that not only let us off the hook but also sideswipe the narrative, pushing it off course. Director Kevin Hamedani, and the screenplay he wrote with Travis Betz, let the drama and tension fizzle at the point where sci-fi fictions blot out modern-day quandaries.
Adam Scott and Danielle Deadwyler create compelling characters as the separating couple, even if it seems as though they’re capitalizing on the mind-fuck sensibilities they each established in such other dramas as Severence and Station Eleven. Their characters here are engaging, yet we never get a good sense of what drew this couple together or why they’re coming apart. The incomparable Colleen Camp and Ron Perlman are unfortunately onscreen for only one scene as racist family members, but as an eccentric P.I. who sports bad wigs and costumes Greg Kinnear more than makes up for anyone’s missing screentime. Theo Rossi, Nazanin Boniadi, and Kate Berlant also co-star.
