Summary

What You Wish For
has a well-executed, grotesque premise that comments on the nature of the upper class.
Nick Stahl and Tamsin Topolski, as well as the rest of the cast, portray incredibly tense group dynamics.

What You Wish For
is slightly open-ended, leaving some plot holes unanswered.

Nicholas Tomnay’s What You Wish For is a thriller from which one cannot look away, even if the overall moral of the story falls just short of flawless. The story follows Ryan (Nick Stahl), a down-on-his-luck chef who travels to South America to meet up with his former roommate Jack (Brian Groh) and escape threats due to his gambling debts. Jack, whom Ryan hasn’t seen in a decade, has everything Ryan could want. However, things take a dark turn when Jack dies and Ryan assumes Jack’s identity, only to discover an ugly truth about Jack’s successful career.

What You Wish For (2023) Director Nicholas Tomnay Studio(s) Evergreen Avenue Writers Nicholas Tomnay Cast Nick Stahl , Tamsin Topolski , Randy Vasquez , Penelope Mitchell , Juan Carlos Messier Runtime 101 Minutes Expand

What You Wish For’s Cast Delivers Tense Group Dynamics

What You Wish For launches us into the beautiful setting of an unspecified South American country, with staging and cinematography that perfectly captures the private residence as well as the city. The first 20 or so minutes is a vivid illustration of professional jealousy, with Ryan dropping some not-so-subtle hints that he is looking for a job and Jack voicing his own woes, which clearly enrages Ryan, even if he maintains a façade of politeness. The two men bring home solo traveler Alice (Penelope Mitchell) for a cooking competition that Ryan wins, but she sleeps with Jack.

The interactions between these three actors are fantastic and painfully relatable to anyone who has experienced similar envy.

The interactions between these three actors are fantastic and painfully relatable to anyone who has experienced similar envy. However, What You Wish For’s tension does not ease up once Jack is out of the picture. Ryan comes back to the house to meet two more hospitality professionals who work for Jack’s mysterious employer: Poised hostess Imogen (Tamsin Topolski) and versatile security and muscle Maurice (Juan Carlos Messier). Ryan keeps pretending to be Jack as Imogen explains the dinner for five ultra-wealthy guests they are hosting — with a grotesque twist.

Ryan is by no means a likable protagonist, landing in a morally gray area of self-perseveration and a guilty conscience. Once the real cooking starts, he slips into the role of chef with an uncomfortable but obvious ease. What You Wish For keeps us hooked with the disturbing scenario, and Topolski’s performance is sharp as she badgers Ryan to “get [his] s**t together,” the threat of death and dismemberment looming.

What You Wish For Doesn’t Quite Land On Its Final Point

The similarities to Mark Mylod’s The Menu are obvious, although What You Wish For can be praised for its premise, which emphasizes both the brutality of the rich and the mental strain and moral degradation of those who rise to work for them. The complete absence of guilt among the dinner guests and Imogen’s justifications are morbidly fascinating. With the slick setting and impeccable professionals (or those trying to appear so) as the backdrop of the twisted story, What You WishFor is an engaging psychological horror.

Not everyone will amass massive gambling debts and will want a successful career for themselves, a plot hole
What You Wish For
doesn’t exactly address.

However, What You Wish For is a little condescending, with a title that mocks career ambitions and a plot that comes full circle with Ryan expressing his jealousy of another man’s standard and exhausting job. Continuing my comparisons to The Menu, the previous movie ends with a purifying spectacle that suggests there is a way out of the toxic cycle, but not without costs. In contrast, What You Wish For posits that the cycle of working for an evil, self-righteous entity never stops.

What You Wish For
is now playing in theaters and available on VOD.

Not everyone will amass massive gambling debts and will want a successful career for themselves, a plot hole What You Wish For doesn’t exactly address. The Menu implies that “Chef” could have been content managing a homey, modestly successful burger joint. What You Wish For concludes that the upper class is horrific and there is no way out for the people who work for them, for a much bleaker ending. However, this finale left me with many more questions, which may have been the point, but doesn’t result in the most satisfying movie.

What You Wish For follows Ryan, a struggling chef with severe gambling problems, who flees to an unnamed Latin American country to escape his debts. His friend Jack, a renowned chef, welcomes him into his luxurious home. Ryan envies Jack’s opulent lifestyle but soon finds out the dark secrets behind it. A twist of fate allows Ryan to assume Jack’s identity, uncovering the sinister means by which Jack has sustained his life of luxury.ProsA morbidly fascinating premise with broader implicationsCast members collectively have great, tense interactionsStunning setting and perfect pacing ConsSlightly open-ended, with minor plot holes