The setup is a world where resources are running out, environmental collapse, population out of control - not enough to go round. So the governments of the world get together, close the borders and agree that they will have to cull their citizens by 20% each within a certain time. We're in America and there, people are offered $250,000 to be euthanised - the money then making their remaining family's lives better.
The family we spend pretty much all of the film with are wealthy and privileged, dad, step mum, four siblings (and a daughter of one of the siblings). They are successful people, in business, the media, arts and so on - all brought about by the family having money. One of the sons, it turns out, is adopted and has had drug problems.
Dad and step mum have decided that they are going to do the decent thing for the country, world and environment and signed up to the euthanasia scheme. We join the family as dad has organised a dinner party to tell them all the news and has lined up the mob (from the firm assigned by the government) to come round and do the job, that evening. Things go wrong when step mum disappears during the meal and the plan for two bodies from this family, this night, can't be cancelled. They need two bodies and it doesn't matter which, as long as they are from this family!
So you can imagine from hereon in what happens, with dad dead, step mum missing, as the four of them argue and fight tooth and nail to make sure that they are not the one to have to take step mum's place! The daughter is whisked away, incidentally, by the team, who don't deal with minors! The team are polite, well turned out, but ruthless in their goal if/when anyone steps out of line or tries not to comply with 'the law'. So that's about the backdrop of what's going on with the rest of the film depicting the fallout from their inter-negotiations and ensuing chaos.
Three of the four of them are decidedly unpleasant, with huge egos, money having carried all before them their whole lives, so we're encouraged to dislike all of them from the outset. There are some twists and turns along the way, but nothing you don't see coming, and it becomes a bit of a survival outing in the end, falling out, teaming up, testing the system and each other. All good fun with a bonkers idea, as I say.
The cast is mostly people I don't know very well, Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire (12 Monkeys, The Rig), Peter Gallagher (American Beauty, The O.C.), Enrico Colantoni (Contagion), Sebastian Chacon, Alanna Bale (Cardinal), Sirena Gulamgaus and Uni Park but they do a decent-enough job between them and keep the interest going. Thankfully there's very little handheld camera work, which there could have been - as they race around the big house full of staircases, corners, rooms and corridors. Pretty much all of the film is set in the house, so nicely claustrophobic - especially when the government team lock them in!
Some interesting ideas about/for the big wide world out there, turned into a nasty little thriller bringing out the worst in some rich folk with some gore thrown in here and there, but really not too much to worry about. I quite enjoyed it anyway. It's on Paramount+ as I speak and a couple of other streaming services in the UK.
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