Ontario actress Rachel McAdams and the legendary director Sam Raimi are no doubt riding high right now as their latest feature film, Send Help, which released on January 30th, earned close to $20 million USD domestically and a total $28.1 million worldwide on its opening weekend. This was good enough to place Send Help, a horror comedy, number one of the domestic and global box office charts, and this past weekend has been no different, as it once again retains the top spot over the historically slow Super Bowl weekend, earning a further $10 million both domestically and internationally. This brings the worldwide tally for Send Help to $53.7 million, and with a $40 million budget, that keeps it on track to turn a profit, which is surely music to the ears of 20th Century Studios.
However, Send Help is not the first time McAdams and Raimi have worked together, as the actress also starred in the celebrated filmmaker’s last directorial effort, the 2022 Marvel movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but because McAdams’ role in this superhero sequel was as limited as it was one-dimensional despite her undeniable talent, in Raimi’s own words, “I promised myself that I would work with her again.”
McAdams had featured prominently in the first Doctor Strange entry, which released in 2016 and was directed by Scott Derrickson, where she portrayed the love interest of Benedict Cumberbatch’s titular character, and although Strange would ultimately choose the crucial mantle of Sorcerer Supreme over his love for McAdams’ Christine, it was abundantly clear that he still longed for her. However, for the Multiverse of Madness sequel, Christine is nothing more than an arbiter of Strange’s ongoing personal sacrifice, regret, and ultimate catharsis.
One can understand the logic of building on Strange’s regret for letting go of Christine at the end of the 2016 blockbuster, but the way it is depicted instead comes off as the egotistical Stephen Strange wanting what he can’t have, retreading a decision already made in the first instalment. Additionally, a similar narrative was better handled in other superhero sequels such Raimi’s own Spider-Man 2, and The Dark Knight, each of which handle the inherent friction between a hero’s romantic life and that of their alter ego with memorable grace and gravitas.
Whereas for Christine, right off the bat I had to remind myself of her character arc in the Doctor Strange sequel, and all you need to know is, presumably to gain ‘context’ as a character, Strange is put in an alternate universe where he is dead, and he also meets a variant of Christine, who is reduced here to exposition and predictably helping Strange come to terms with why he lost her in the first place. Any dramatic or romantic tension that might have existed between Strange and Christine is overshadowed by wild, admittedly fun cameos, and ultimately undone by uninspired execution.
Nonetheless, Sam Raimi is an undeniably talented filmmaker, having directed some of the finest genre films of all time, while Rachel McAdams is one of the sought after actresses in the world, and for good reason. Such a marriage of talent can produce wonders under the right conditions, and if its exuberant critical reception and strong box office numbers thus far are anything to go by, Send Help is one such example.