Grade: C-
When Woody Allen doesn’t star in his own movies, he usually has the leading actor play his type. I’m not seeing that Paul Rudd has ever worked with Allen, but Rudd’s work in Death of a Unicorn made me think that he would be perfect in a Woody role. He’s nervous, awkward, neurotic, and as he ages, he becomes more like a Ned Flandersish dad as opposed to the sexiest man alive. His chemistry with Jenna Ortega as his daughter is one of the better things about Death of a Unicorn.
Rudd plays Elliott, who travels with his daughter Ridley to his boss’s sprawling country estate. They hit a unicorn with the car on the way. Ridley touches its horn, and has some kind of cosmic experience she really enjoys, and it clears up her acne. Elliott puts it out of its misery, or so he thinks. Rather than leave the roadkill on the side, for some reason, they take it with them in their rental SUV. They arrive, and after some generic MacGuffin dialogue about the future of the firm and wanting to make partner and all that, the unicorn has healed itself and comes back to life. And more come.
This must have been a blast to film, but the fun doesn’t carry over to the viewer. There are talented people in the cast, including Richard E. Grant and Téa Leoni as the boss and his wife. The few good laughs I had came from Will Poulter (Midsommar, The Revenant) as the quintessential nepo-baby son. He makes “hot tub” a verb, as in “You need to talk about something? Come on in, and let’s hot tub about it.” Sunita Mani (You Hurt My Feelings, Spirited, Everything Everywhere All At Once), who I’ve evidently seen before, also makes an impression. I’ve never seen any of the Alien movies, but even I recognized the iconic shot of the alien growling by Sigourney Weaver’s face as she grimaces – recreated here with Ortega and a unicorn. Otherwise, this is an overblown, overacted, embarrassing mess.
By the end, actually well before it, I literally didn’t care what happened to any characters. The movie cheats anyway, as nobody important who dies stays dead, because magic solves everything. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to feel about the ending. Is everything starting to happen again? Is that a good thing? Whatever. I was glad to have Death of a Unicorn over with. You can’t even say it’s the best possible film about a unicorn.
Grade: C-
Film Reviews by Mark 
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