‘What You Wish For’: Fantasia Review

Dir/scr: Nicholas Tomnay. US. 2023. 101mins

A struggling chef has to make the greatest meal of his life — or else — in What You Wish For, a dark thriller with an impish sense of humour. Nicholas Tomnay’s second feature follows an amoral ne’er-do-well as he assumes his wealthy friend’s identity, discovering just how difficult (and deadly) the con will be to maintain — especially once he realises how his buddy made his money. Flaunting several twists that would be unsporting to spoil, this slick B-movie is undercut by the preposterousness of its premise, although there is something mildly appealing in watching the writer-director and his star, a nicely stoic Nick Stahl, try to keep their increasingly convoluted narrative cooking.

Tomnay delivers a stripped-down but elegant-looking thriller on a budget

What You Wish For premieres at Fantasia before heading to FrightFest, and the film could tempt fans of other culinary-themed projects like the Ralph Fiennes satire The Menu and the acclaimed series The Bear. Tomnay’s debut feature was 2010’s similarly sly thriller The Perfect Host, and his new picture’s skewering of income inequality might strike a chord with the same audiences that turned pictures such as Parasite and Knives Out into commercial successes. That said, What You Wish For’s modest execution and familiar elements make this more of a VoD prospect than a solid theatrical performer.

Landing somewhere in Latin America — the film doesn’t specify which country — Ryan (Stahl) is a low-rent hotel chef who is dodging troubles back in the US. (He receives menacing texts from someone named Rabbit, who demands money for debts and threatens to harm Ryan’s mother if he doesn’t comply.) He meets up with Jack (Brian Groh), an old friend he has not seen in more than a decade, who invites Ryan into his lavish home in the middle of nowhere. Also a chef, Jack has made a fortune working for a private agency that flies him around the planet preparing extravagant dinners for elite customers. Saddled with a gambling problem and money woes, Ryan is envious of Jack, who insists his life isn’t that great – although he won’t explain why.

What happens next should not be revealed, but suffice it to say that Ryan unexpectedly finds himself trading places with his friend — a ruse that works so well that Jack’s employer, Imogene (Tamsin Topolski), simply assumes he is Jack. Faced with the possibility of finally freeing himself of his financial anxieties, Ryan keeps up the masquerade, only to be shocked by what Jack did not tell him about this agency.

With assistance from cinematographer Mateo Guzman Sanchez and production designer Diana Trujillo, Tomnay delivers a stripped-down but elegant-looking thriller on a budget, with much of the action taking place in Jack’s spacious, stylish estate, a thick tropical forest surrounding the property in all directions. A few of What You Wish For’s surprises are easy to predict — the title itself is a major clue — but once Ryan (and the audience) uncover the truth of what is happening, the film evolves into a sort of mischievous stunt, Tomnay testing the limits of his story’s credibility and seeing how outlandish he can be. 

What helps, somewhat, is Stahl’s grounded performance. Ryan understands he has been placed in an impossible situation, but because of the life-and-death stakes — and because he is posing as the world-class chef Jack — he has no choice but to play along, no matter how many complications are thrown his way. Stahl is best at quietly illustrating how this unsuccessful 40-something is surprisingly skilful at lying, whether it is pretending to be Jack or talking to local police who end up crashing the dinner party to ask him troubling questions. Ryan’s blase confidence in his deception in some ways matches Tomnay’s blithe escalation of his script’s knowingly absurd twists and turns — both men are playing a game, seeing what they can get away with before they are caught.

Unfortunately, What You Wish For ultimately does not amount to much as either a thriller or as a commentary on the ways the rich exploit those beneath them. But Topolski proves to be a worthy adversary to Ryan, lending Imogene a brittle heartlessness that keeps this chef on edge. The film increases its body count and bloodletting over its runtime, encouraging the viewer to chuckle at the gratuitousness; a cheeky counterpoint to the ridiculous amount of problems Ryan encounters as he tries to survive this hellish evening. Be careful what you wish for, Tomnay warns us — but also beware of films whose giddy convolutions end up being not as flavourful as you would hope.