The Big Picture

What You Wish For
lacks the bite to become a social thriller it gestures towards.
Nick Stahl’s intense performance can’t save the film from a scattered finale and lack of focus.
The movie’s disappointing ending fails to give weight to its themes, leaving viewers wanting more.

If What You Wish For was a meal, it’d be one that you’d find occasionally filling in courses though ultimately forgettable. It’s a film without the kick to truly become the social thriller it’s constantly emptily gesturing towards. While it makes an admirable attempt to put a horror twist on the portrait of what it means to a working-class chef à la The Bear, it is too narrow an experience to ever have any bite or revealing observations. Even as someone who was not impressed with 2022’s half-baked The Menu, which this is almost playing as an inverse of, I’d take the final burger that film serves up over this meandering meal any time. Though it assembles some of the right ingredients before laying them out before you, it never proceeds to arrange them in any particularly interesting or entertaining way.

This isn’t to say there aren’t some morsels worth biting into and committed performances to build around. Though not always the most in-demand actor out there, Nick Stahl has been great in other recent genre works, like 2021’s unsettling What Josiah Saw and the regrettably canceled recent series Let the Right One In. He brings a quiet intensity that can be a little hard to fully pin down, making the troubled characters he often plays more magnetic than they are on the page. Unfortunately, in this case, even he feels stranded by a script that can’t quite settle on what it wants to be before haphazardly building to a more scattered finale. It ensures that, while What You Wish For attempts to tackle how the wealthy of the world consume the poorest, it only ends up eating itself and any potential it may have had.

What You Wish For (2023) Ryan, a struggling chef with a heavy gambling problem, seeks refuge in a luxurious Latin American villa owned by his friend Jack. Envying Jack’s extravagant lifestyle, Ryan is unaware of the sinister secrets behind his friend’s wealth. When Jack exits the picture, Ryan takes on his identity, only to uncover the perilous and illegal activities Jack engaged in to sustain his opulence.Release Date July 30, 2023 Director Nicholas Tomnay Runtime 101 Minutes Writers Nicholas Tomnay Expand

What is ‘What You Wish For’ About?

The one preparing what is to be consumed is Ryan (Stahl) who is going to visit his friend and fellow chef Jack (Brian Groh) after what has been some time apart. When he arrives in the nondescript Latin American country, he is surprised to discover an almost absurdly beautiful home where the wealth oozing out of every corner of the compound contrasts with the poverty of the community surrounding it. This already seems to be weighing on Jack, but there is a sense that there is also something more going on as well. On top of that, we discover in pieces that Ryan has had a gambling problem and is now getting threatening texts trying to get him to cough up some cash. At one point, he even takes a peek on the computer at the massive amount of money in Jack’s bank account. How did he make all that money? Well, Ryan soon learns it’s doing more than just preparing ordinary meals that he will then have to take on himself when Jack is suddenly out of the picture. He’ll take on his identity, much like the far better recent film Influencer, but also all the baggage that comes with it.

There is a twist of sorts that comes, which won’t be spoiled here, but if you’ve ever seen a movie in your life, you will know what is coming. There are some darkly comedic moments where Ryan breaks into all of Jack’s accounts (giving the worst answers possible to every single question he is asked) and then must talk with the clients who have arrived for the big dinner he must prepare. The remainder of the movie lacks this sense of humor as it instead settles into being far more standard stuff that, save for one sinister self-serving monologue about how this company is not that bad compared to others, never raises the pulse.

Even when a police officer shows up at the dinner to investigate what is going on, the lengths to which the film goes to keep him around dissipates any lasting tension, as you can practically see the strings being pulled. The diners themselves are mostly cardboard cutouts, with only one feeling close to an actual character, which is just so he can provide a narrative reason for the cop to stay. It seems like What You Wish For wants to be some sort of confined thriller where it’s just about waiting for the shoe to drop on what we already know is going on, but it is largely tepid in this buildup before landing with a thud. The dialogue is often rather forced, with one moment where a character makes sure we see exactly where their phone is charging getting dropped in so unnaturally that it is almost comical.

‘What You Wish For’ Will Leave You Wishing for a Better Movie

This and many moments where the effects while driving look incomplete make it increasingly hard to get immersed in the film. However, all of this could be forgivable if the film got us invested in what is going on with Ryan pretending to be Jack and what he represents in the story. Unfortunately, he often fades into the background of his own film until he gets brought out for a closing that ends less with a bang and more with a whimper.

Just when it finally feels like the film is getting somewhere after throwing in empty escalation after empty escalation just to keep afloat, it abruptly downshifts to a more dull yet equally forced final scene. What it seems to be trying to hit on is that, when it all comes down to it, Ryan was ultimately willing to accept his lot in life even if it meant being complicit in cruelty to others. Sure, he made some extra cash in doing so, but the cost of selling your soul as well as those of others is the type of thing you’ll never be able to pay back. That this sounds like it could be a potent ending on paper only makes it all the more disappointing in execution.

There just wasn’t the heft given to any of these ideas leading up to the end and there certainly isn’t salvation to be found in the final series of scenes. No matter what it tries to serve up to you across a high number of courses, What You Wish For just leaves you wanting for the real meal to start rather than one that only pays lip service to its deeper ideas.

REVIEW What You Wish For (2023) Despite Nick Stahl trying his darnedest, What You Wish For is a meal that is lacking in sustenance.Release Date July 30, 2023 Director Nicholas Tomnay Runtime 101 Minutes Writers Nicholas Tomnay ProsNick Stahl is a strong performer that remains compelling even when the material on the page is not. ConsThe film only gestures towards deeper ideas and never fully takes a bite out of them.All of the tension quickly dissipates as everything is too confined to leave much of an impact.The ending again tries to be more potent, but just ends up being a conclusion without any salvation to be found. Expand

What You Wish For is now available to stream on VOD and is showing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes near you.

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