Let's Kill Ward's Wife Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Let's Kill Ward's Wife Blu-ray Movie Review

Foley effects.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 4, 2015

There are of course many people whose general temperaments make them undesirable to be around, and there are of course many people forced to be around these sour and dour folks who no doubt at least think to themselves, “I wish he (or she) were dead.” That’s the general setup of the genial if ultimately unrealized black, black, black comedy Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife. This first directorial effort from actor Scott Foley (Scream 3) traffics in a kind of overly arch premise that is at least tangentially reminiscent of the iconic Alfred Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train. In that 1951 classic, the demented Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) offers to “trade murders” with tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger). In Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife, a group of well intentioned friends of harangued husband Ward (Donald Faison, Clueless, Scrubs) semi- jokingly talk about offing Ward’s harridan wife Stacy (Dagmara Dominczyk). When one of these friends, Tom (Scott Foley), goes a little ballistic during a party and pushes Stacy’s head into a birthday cake, causing the enraged woman to slip and clunk her head badly on the floor, that scenario seems to be coming true almost serendipitously. But in one of several odd developments which are at least debatably missteps, Foley (the writer and director) has Foley (the actor) “finish” the job off by mercilessly strangling Stacy, supposedly in a fit of pique resulting from having watched this admitted bitch of a woman rampage once too often. That sets the rest of the film in motion, where a bunch of overly sanguine middle class Angelinos have to deal with disposing of a body and coming up with a suitable story for Ward to tell the police.

These kinds of ultra dark comedies require a deft hand to play well, and it’s to Foley’s credit that he has assembled a largely game and energetic cast (many of whom are either related to him or at least close personal friends). Patrick Wilson is on hand as David, a down on his luck actor (is there any other kind in Los Angeles, or at least in the Los Angeles of films like this?). David is dealing with a recent estrangement from his wife, Amanda (Marika Domińczyk, Foley’s real life wife and the sister of Dagmara). Tom meanwhile is dealing with a rather aggressive come on from a famous actress named Robin Peters (Nicollete Sheridan), something that is threatening his (largely sexless) marriage to Gina (Amy Acker). “Third wheel” Ronnie (James Carpinello) at least doesn’t have a spouse to gum up his works, a plot point which leaves this character largely on the sidelines offering lip service toward being conscience stricken once Stacy has been killed.

Unfortunately even the gamest of casts can’t overcome an inartfully constructed screenplay, and Foley (the writer) simply can’t sustain the artifice of the premise, leading to only sporadic guffaws now and then instead of sustained hilarity. Foley wants his audience to be comedically shocked at how nonplussed everyone is about Stacy’s death and the resultant disposal of her body, but because the characters are so generally bland and ill defined, there’s no reason to be shocked or in fact to even care that much, since the characters themselves ultimately don’t seem to care themselves (despite Ronnie’s recurrent pangs of guilt).

There’s also an overly forced sidebar plot involving Bruce (Greg Grunberg), Ward’s nosy neighbor who is (of course) a cop. Bruce’s interruptions into the crime scene provide a bit of angst that is otherwise nonexistent, but Foley once again defers to cliché, including a completely predictable sequence where Bruce has supposedly stumbled upon Stacy’s remains in a couple of garbage bags. It’s notable that Foley indulges in a completely odd set of unnecessary and actually kind of weird “reveals” at this moment, backtracking to show details that are tangential at best.

The completely odd and for some probably off putting depictions of the state of several “modern” marriages in the film will probably raise a few hackles as well. Tom, already considering a dalliance with a gorgeous actress, is finally able to perform sexually with his wife after having killed a woman, a murder which also excites his spouse, who talks about her arousal in rather explicit terms. Even more strangely, the murder just more or less magically reunites David with his wife, with no real intervening motivating factors explored or detailed.

There are some scattered laughs sprinkled throughout the film, mostly derived from the complete disconnect between the horrifying aspects of Stacy’s death and the unconcerned responses of the conspirators. But there’s a curious blandness to this presentation that never goes full throttle into totally dark, unapologetic territory. Somewhere Bruno Anthony is wagging his finger and issuing a cautionary “tsk, tsk” to these overly calm amateurs.

Let's Kill Ward's Wife Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Let's Kill Ward's Wife is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This Red shot film boasts a decently sharp if kind of blah looking image that never totally pops in any meaningful way. A lot of the film is bathed in a slight greenish tint, a choice that sucks minute amounts of fine detail out of midrange shots. The flatness of this presentation is probably exacerbated by the fact that a lot of the film takes place indoors, without much in the way of depth of field. Still, detail is often commendable, offering little tidbits like droplets of blood and even a few gooey fleshy strands as Stacy's body is sliced and diced on its way to various dumping grounds. Contrast is just a bit anemic, though, with a kind of milky ambience creeping into a lot of these same interior sequences. There are no issues with image instability and no compression artifacts of any note.

Let's Kill Ward's Wife Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Let's Kill Ward's Wife features a perfectly serviceable if largely unambitious DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. The track opens up significantly during its use of source cues, but dialogue is rarely overly directional, though it is always presented very cleanly and clearly. There are no issues of any kind to report on this track which offers excellent fidelity if somewhat muted dynamic range.

Let's Kill Ward's Wife Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Outtakes (1080p; 3:24) play with a timecode caption.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:56)

As is customary with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, this disc has been authored to have the supplements play automatically one after the other. This includes trailers for other Well Go USA releases, three of which follow the Trailer for this film.

Let's Kill Ward's Wife Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There used to be an often hilarious Mad Magazine feature where bad "reviews" would be printed in their entirety, and then pull quotes would be extracted for ad copy, extractions that of course would excise one or two words to make it seem like whatever property was being reviewed was some kind of classic. Something on that same order is on hand on the back cover of Let's Kill Ward's Wife, where none other than a certain Blu-ray.com is quoted (from Brian Orndorf's Let's Kill Ward's Wife review). Brian wasn't exactly adulatory about this film, and so the pull quote is more than a bit misleading. There are some scattered laughs in the film, but not nearly enough, and Foley simply doesn't seem to know how to shape the material to make it both dark and humorous. Technical merits are generally strong for those considering a purchase.