The Trouble with Jessica

Directed and co-written by Matt Winn, The Trouble with Jessica sees affluent couple Tom (Alan Tudyk) and Sarah (Shirley Henderson) host a dinner party for their close friends Beth (Olivia Williams) and Richard (Rufus Sewell). However, to their annoyance, an uninvited guest arrives in the form of Jessica (Indira Varma). Her wild behaviour gets the night off to a bad start, but things quickly get worse when she unexpectedly commits suicide in the garden. Desperate to close a deal to sell their house, Tom and Sarah rope the other guests into making it look like she killed herself in her own home. The mishaps continue to ensue, causing more chaos as the evening goes on.

There are hints of Steve Oram and Ben Wheatley’s works dotted throughout this macabre black comedy that takes aim at the wealthier classes. The premise is an enticing one, with the bombastic jazz music that scores the panicked discovery of Jessica’s body promising a strange and bizarre ride ahead. Frustratingly, though, the script never develops any of its ideas in interesting ways to live up to the viewer’s first impressions.

While there are a handful of quippy one-liners that illicit chuckles, many of the gags in this movie don’t land. Most of the jokes revolve around the guests trying to keep the body out of sight from a nosey neighbour and a pair of friendly police officers by moving the corpse whenever someone isn’t looking or propping her up in the backseat of a car. As well as reusing the same sitcom punchlines continuously, the main issue is that the script doesn’t up the ante throughout the course of the runtime. With no new stakes or increasingly absurd situations for the characters to find themselves in, this comedy simply trundles along at its starting speed until it arrives at its destination.

When the diners aren’t trying to conceal a corpse, they’re trying to figure out which husband Jessica was having an affair with. Though these moments add some extra characterisation and intrigue, the film isn’t quite able to tie this subplot into the rest of the narrative. Likewise, any reflections on Jessica’s character and the reasons for her suicide feel more like hastily added afterthoughts than meaningful additions to the script.

Despite its alluring premise and fantastic cast, the trouble with this film is that it unfortunately falls short of delivering on its initial promise.

Andrew Murray

The Trouble with Jessica is released in select cinemas on 5^th April 2024.

Watch the trailer for The Trouble with Jessica here: