{Fantastic Fest 2023} What You Wish For

On the tail of another chef-centered thriller from last year’s Fantastic Fest, I was stoked to check out What You Wish For from writer/director Nicholas Tomnay. What followed is a tight morality play that asks the question is it time to eat the rich if they are already eating the rest of us.

Similarly themed to Brandon Cronenberg’s newest film What You Wish For centers itself on our protagonist. Ryan a former chef is on the run from his gambling debts and decides to visit his old friend in Latin America. After his friend commits suicide Ryan assumes his identity and learns just what and how his old friend did to earn his money.

Nick Stahl shines as the slightly bumbling Ryan. From the first moment of the film, Ryan appears in way over his head. Stahl manages to charm while appearing as if he has absolutely no idea what is going on or how he is going to survive the dinner. The rest of the cast is suitably professional as they make their way from one tense situation to another. Stahl holds the cast together with an effortless (literally his character appears to be putting in the bare minimum to eek by) performance.

While the story itself borrows heavily from a myriad of other horror films What You Wish For does a lot with its limited cast and location. In many ways, the chamber piece the film becomes in the third act makes the film more impressive. The main location looks beautiful and it is entirely believable as a luxurious estate where the rich come to dine on the native long pork. The few scenes shot outside of the compound are suitably vague in where they might be and in that way, the movie becomes more of an allegory than an actual plot-driven story.

What You Wish For contains some horror elements but it is probably more correctly characterized as a taunt thriller but there is an underlying comedy somewhere in this script which gives the entire film a bit of a Weekend at Bernie’s vibe where Ryan must keep up the charade no matter how high the stakes get. If something could go wrong it will probably go wrong. That being said Ryan is a survivor as evidenced by the first twenty minutes of the film. He is also a scammer and no one is more suited to the conditions of the movie than a conman with a pension to do whatever it takes to get out of a bad situation.

As the film wraps up you will not get the satisfying ending of The Menu. Nor will you get the slightly weird and wild ending of Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel which feels like the great grand uncle to this movie. The final ten minutes of the film are slightly sad and a great reminder that the greener grass looks decidedly worse when it is covered in the blood of people you care about.

I caught What You Wish For as part of Fantastic Fest 2023. It is still waiting on a release day as of the publication of this review. Fingers crossed you can enjoy this meal soon in a theatre near you.