What You Wish For Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

What You Wish For Blu-ray Movie Review

Donner, party of six.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III November 24, 2024

A deceptively simple low-budget psychological thriller with several good tricks up its sleeve, writer/director Nicholas Tomnay's What You Wish For cooks up a rare, meaty lead role to the underrated Nick Stahl. Stahl plays talented but struggling chef Ryan, whose gambling problems have gotten him deep into debt; it's bad enough that he temporarily leaves the country to avoid a mysterious collector's threatening phone messages. His perfect escape arrives in the form of a reunion with old culinary school roommate Jack (Brian Groh), who's currently in Central America on a work-for-hire chef gig for a secretive but very well-paying international agency. Shacking up in Jack's lavish temporary home for the next few weeks, Ryan is happy to reset his stress levels while reconnecting with his old friend, who will be hosting an upcoming dinner for wealthy elites but, for unknown reasons, seems terribly unhappy with his "dream job".

Soon enough, however, something happens that leaves Ryan entirely on his own... but rather than alert local police of the situation, he instead decides to assume Jack's identity and job duties. Days later as the dinner approaches, agency reps Imogene (Tamsin Topolski) and Maurice (Juan Carlos Messier) arrive without realizing that this new "Jack" is an imposter. Unfortunately, there are a number of newer agency protocols that Jack is unaware of... and they'll become a particularly big problem once he realizes what the job actually entails. Simply put, there's a dark, dark secret about the menu they'll be serving, which of course Jack is repulsed by... but he's unable to escape the situation in fear of his life for more than one reason. Nonetheless, the hungry guests arrive right on time... and so does Officer Gallo (Ariel Sierra) and curious Detective Ruiz (Randy Vasquez), whose adult nephew has recently gone missing.

Such a vague synopsis doesn't do great justice to What You Wish For, a movie that I didn't go in completely blind for but certainly didn't know all that much about beforehand. New viewers are better off doing the same. Incidentally, it happens to share a little bit of narrative DNA with another 2024 thriller I recently reviewed, Blink Twice, in that both stories take place in idyllic, isolated foreign areas with an extremely dark underbelly. Whereas Blink Twice showed its hand way too early and often went way over-the-top, What You Wish For is much more restrained and effective in the way its story unfolds. This isn't a perfect movie, mind you, but it's an organically effective one that only suffers from a few weak supporting performances and one or two conveniently dumb character decisions along the way. On the whole, I found it to be a largely satisfying thriller that should hold up very well on repeat viewings.

It's kind of ironic that writer/director Nicholas Tomnay's only other credited feature-length effort, 2010's The Perfect Host, was criticized by reviewer Casey Broadwater (and others) for stretching a short film's story to 94 poorly-paced minutes. What You Wish For almost has the opposite problem in that I actually wanted a little more... and though its open ending leaves room for another adventure, the film's miniscule box-office take all but guarantees a once-and-done affair. In any case, wanting more out of any film is a good indication that they did something right, and my gut tells me that new viewers will walk away as decently pleased as I was. That's a roundabout way of saying that Magnolia's recent Blu-ray edition, even without any bonus features to its name, actually makes a solid blind buy.

What You Wish For Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Despite the low budget, What You Wish For makes the most out of its ingredients and this pleasing 1080p transfer follows suit. There are only a handful of locations used here as 90% of the film takes place in the lavish house and its surrounding property, with basic research suggesting that everything was shot on location in Columbia in less than a month. DP Mateo Guzmán's workmanlike cinematography is efficient, frequently showing off the house's ultra-modern interiors, the lush surrounding area, and of course the deceptive and delicious foods that are prepared. On the technical side of things, this Blu-ray's picture impresses with solid fine detail, excellent color reproduction, deep black levels, and no flagrant encoding issues aside from extremely trace levels of macro blocking and posterization. On the whole, it's a visually well-crafted film and those who watch it on this format won't find much to complain about.

What You Wish For Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix doesn't offer ample sonic surprises but gets the job done well enough, establishing natural location- based ambience and occasionally upping the tension and dread in a less organic but nonetheless effective way. Dialogue is clean and crisp, background effects are nicely mixed, and occasional panning and wide separation add a bit of flavor to the stew. The original score is credited to Jeff Russo and Tracie Turnbull, and it often blends into the background but sporadically stabs its way to the front of the line. A solid effort indeed.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the film with occasional forced subs for translation.

What You Wish For Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork. Sadly, no bonus features are included.

What You Wish For Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Writer/director Nicholas Tomnay's What You Wish For is an impressive little low-budget production, making the most out of its limited ingredients to create a darkly captivating thriller that ends on a disturbingly circular note. While a few supporting performances fall short of greatness (or even goodness) and one or two character decisions are made just to extend the plot, there's a lot to like here and makes its lesser-known status all the more unjustified. (Several critics even chastised it as an uninspired rip-off of 2022's The Menu, which I personally don't think is a very fair comparison at all.) It'll hopefully earn wider attention thanks to Magnolia Entertainment's recent Blu-ray, a disc that doesn't offer any extras but still gets by on a solid A/V presentation and, of course, the strength of the main feature. Once its asking price dips to a number that you're comfortable with, newcomers should dig right in. Recommended.