Dead in A Week (Or Your Money Back)

If you’re serious about ending it, you need professional help!

Year Released: 2018

Director: Tom Edmunds

Cast: Aneurin Barnard, Tom Wilkinson, Freya Mavor, Marion Bailey and Christopher Eccleston

Every once in a while a movie is released at the cinema that reminds me of a film I have reviewed on this site, and that happened a few weeks ago when I saw the trailer for “Dead in A Week” (I’m not going to go through the entire article constantly writing the entire name). I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but then saw it being advertised at my local Odeon.

At just over 300 votes on IMDB at the time of me writing this, a very limited release meaning that that isn’t likely to go above my 10,000 limit, as well as this movie’s similarities to “Suicide Theory” all made it worth watching and reviewing.

Being British and in my mid-thirties, I grew up with TV shows with a very dark sense of humour (such as Blackadder) and I personally have what could best be described as “gallows-humour”, so this movie seems tailor-made for someone like me. I might be on my lonesome in this case though as “Dead in a Week” currently has a rating of just 4.8/10 on IMDB, so we will see as I tend not to like the films on there that fall below 5/10.

Plot

Failing writer William (Barnard) is suicidal, but no matter how hard he tries he can’t kill himself successfully, with oddities of luck intervening. One night he is standing on a bridge to try to finally succeed and he is approached by Leslie (Wilkinson), who wants to watch before eventually simply giving William his card, claiming to be an assassin. He walks off as William jumps, only to land on a passing ship.

William calls Leslie and takes out a contract on himself, with the agreement being that he will be dead in a week. The next day William gets a call from publisher Ellie (Mavor) as she wants to talk more about his newest manuscript. At a business meeting, William can’t believe his luck, all before dropping something, and as he ducks to pick it up Leslie shoots one of those at the meeting, thus proving William’s inability to die via unnatural circumstances.

Despite changing his mind, William can’t convince Leslie to call off the contract and goes into hiding, but one of the reasons Leslie won’t cancel is that he is under pressure to complete the job.

So is it worth more than 4.8/10?

So earlier I said that I have a very specific type of comedic taste and that “Dead in a Week” would probably fit into that. Not only was that the case, but at the time of writing, out of 95 films I have seen at the cinema this year, this sits at number ten in terms of my rankings. I genuinely enjoyed this and was surprised in hindsight about the low score on IMDB is. It just goes to show that you shouldn’t base whether you like a film on what others say.

I also mentioned that this movie was very similar in premise to “Suicide Theory” and whilst I have to maintain that that assessment is correct, there is enough difference outside of the main premise for me still to consider it relatively original. For example, “Suicide Theory” is very dark in the delivery, whereas “Dead in a Week” is a dark comedy, and for me, they both work just as well as each other in their respective genre.

One thing that definitely differentiates the two is that whilst “Suicide Theory” doesn’t hold a lot of hope and is quite depressing in places, “Dead in a Week” is certainly more on the optimistic side and delivers the message that even if everything feels a bit crap, something great might just be waiting around the corner, and that is quite refreshing for a film with suicide as the subject matter.

The comedy in this definitely fits into the gallows-humour style and that is why it worked for me, although the cast is fantastic, with Aneurin Barnard standing out in the lead role. He makes the character of William likeable and it made me want him to survive. I have to commend the filmmakers for also fleshing out the character of Leslie, making him a sympathetic antagonist rather than just another generic bad guy. To be fair even calling him an antagonist feels a bit strange and wrong.

Summary

“Dead in a Week (or Your Money Back)” is a movie that I think most people who grew up on TV shows such as “Blackadder” will like as it is the same type of gallows-humour that is delivered in such a deadpan way. I have the feeling that this type of humour will make the film far more

The cast does a great job and I personally found the comedy to not only be sharp and witty, but most importantly, funny. However, the most important aspect is that they flesh out the two central characters well enough that you feel connected to both of them and see why they make the decisions that they do.

I would definitely recommend.