So The Intervention is a movie. It’s a movie that’s a movie. Let’s all shrug at that statement.
The Intervention is a drama-comedy that isn’t about drugs or alcohol or anything along those lines–rather, it’s about a group of friends, led by always-just-under-the-radar Melanie Lynskey, who come together at a lake house to inform two of their married friends that they should get divorced.
Because fighting and general hate and such.
Lynskey is joined by Cobie Smulders, Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Jason Ritter and some other actors you may or may not recognize for this ensemble, which at 90 minutes is a brisk, easy watch, but also one that doesn’t amount to a whole lot. It’s generally well acted and harmless. It’s also inconsequential and doesn’t amount to a whole lot.
Written and directed by DuVall, the movie is like so many other indie flicks in which the drama isn’t very serious and the comedy isn’t very funny. The hook, the concept, is actually pretty decent, but she deflects the story’s potential and dramatic impact by throwing every character’s relationship into a frenzy–which in turn results in several almost-but-not-quite zany situations that create false conflict and very few laughs.
The Intervention isn’t bad; it just isn’t very good. A comedy that isn’t funny and a drama that isn’t dramatic don’t leave a lot for audiences to chew on. If anything, this movie needed its own intervention early on.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.