Published: August 06, 2009 08:49 am      

'A Perfect Getaway' not so perfect

“A Perfect Getaway” — The whole movie is essentially one big red herring, flopping around on an idyllic Hawaiian beach, desperately trying to call attention to itself. Everyone’s a suspect and no one’s a suspect, and writer-director David Twohy’s raison d’etre with this thriller is to mess with our brains and keep us guessing until he reveals his Big Twist. It’s not as earth-shattering as “Bruce Willis is actually dead” but it’s a pretty good one, and it’ll make you go back and think twice about what the characters did and said to make sure it all makes sense. It does, but it’s also a gimmick, and a self-conscious one at that. One of the travelers on this supposedly perfect island vacation keeps talking about screenwriting devices like red herrings (though he mistakenly calls them red snappers) and second-act twists. This is not nearly as cute as Twohy seems to think. But you could just ignore all that, though, and give into the many B-movie conventions “A Perfect Getaway” has to offer: skeevy hitchhikers and strangers in the jungle, skinny dipping and girl-on-girl fistfights. Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich co-star as newlyweds Cliff and Cydney, who spend their honeymoon backpacking to a remote beach in Hawaii. Along the way they run into two other couples: Nick and Gina (Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez), who seem friendly enough and Kale and Cleo (Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton), who try to bum a ride in their Jeep but seem obviously unhinged. R for graphic violence, language including sexual references and some drug use. 98 min. Two stars out of four.