Watching the ensemble black comedy “The Estate,” written and directed by Dean Craig and co-starring Toni Collette, will no doubt draw comparison to another ensemble black comedy co-starring Toni Collette, “Knives Out,” which dwells in the same story milieu of money-hungry family members competing for a mention in a wealthy family member’s will. Of course, “Knives Out” is a twisty whodunit in the vein of Agatha Christie, and Craig’s film is merely an exploration of what depravities people might sink to in hopes of getting a bigger piece of the financial pie. Still, there are enough similarities between the two films, both rife with smarmy, unlikable characters, that one could become preoccupied in wondering why “Knives Out” works and why “The Estate” decidedly does not.
The answer lies in what “The Estate” is lacking, which is someone to root for. There might be some actual stakes in the game if we wanted someone, anyone, to win the inheritance that’s up for grabs when it’s announced that the wealthy and childless Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner) does not have long for this world.
One would think that Collette’s character Macey, whose perspective we are aligned with throughout, would be the hero of this film, but it’s a challenge to identify with her passive-aggressive people-pleasing, her character defined by not a single discernible personality trait, but only through her relationship to men (her dead father, her ex-husband, her current boyfriend, her creepy cousin).
Craig has crammed the only character exposition and motivation into a truly appalling animated opening credits sequence set to a jazzy blues tune. We see the animated stick figure avatars of Macey and her sister Savanna (Anna Faris) working in a cafe that was left to them by their father, who has died, and a foreclosure notice from the bank. As we transition out of this animated sequence, the sisters are denied a loan, they discover Aunt Hilda is dying and Savanna convinces Macey to pay a visit to try and get written into Hilda’s will. Presumably it’s to save the cafe that we never see nor care about, until Macey changes her mind halfway through the film and declares she wants the money so her boyfriend Geoff (Gichi Gamba) won’t move to Alaska.
When they find their cousin, Beatrice (Rosemarie Dewitt) and her husband James (Ron Livingston) already ensconced in Hilda’s New Orleans mansion, with another cousin, the lecherous Richard (David Duchovny) pulling up outside in his Porsche, it’s war. Scatological mishaps and sex crimes (yes, sex crimes) ensue as the cousins fight to be Hilda’s favorite.
It turns out that Beatrice and James want the money for their struggling restaurant (that’s not one, but two failing restaurants) and Richard, who prefers Dick, just wants a new Porsche. Though Richard has a strange cousin fetish for Macey, his forthright manner and Duchovny’s relaxed delivery make him the only funny character in the film, and quite possibly the only cousin worth rooting for.
It’s just too hard to hang with Macey when she meekly goes along with Savanna’s harebrained schemes, which result in criminal behavior, such as kidnapping and sexual assault; Savanna is so off-the-rails it would make sense if she was in the throes of a psychotic break, and Faris’ tired comedic schtick doesn’t help dissuade us otherwise. That Macey is so easily swayed to these plans does not speak well to her character, either.
Watching “The Estate” feels like being gaslit, in attempting to understand the purpose of anyone’s actions, or to find humor at all in these morbidly bleak antics, when there is simply nothing there. It’s not funny, it’s not satirical, and it’s not worth your time, or Toni Collette’s. Hopefully it was a nice trip to New Orleans.
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‘THE ESTATE’
1 star (out of 4)
MPAA rating: R (for pervasive language, crude/sexual material, graphic nudity and brief drug use)
Running time: 1:36
How to watch: In theaters Friday
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