Careful What You Wish For (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – A guy gets more than he bargained for after entering into an affair with the wife of an investment banker. Soon, a suspicious death and substantial life insurance policy embroil him in a scandal.

My Take – I’m not a Jonas brothers fan, frankly I don’t even know much about them, except that Disney had produced some films centering around them in order to capitalize on their craze among young teenage girls. Here, The youngest sibling of the band, Nick Jonas, stars in his first adult and serious acting role! After reading an interesting premise, I was disappointed when I found out that this film was going to star Nick Jonas; however after watching it in its entirety, it came clear that he was not the weak link of this Hitchcockian styled thriller. The story follows Doug Martin (Nick Jonas), a handsome self-conscious virgin student who is anticipating going off to an excellent college soon. But in the meantime, it’s summer as he and his super-annoying friend are mostly concerned with scoring with the local girls. However, Doug is in for a huge surprise. His new rich neighbor investment banker Elliot Harper (Dermot Mulroney) has a very young and very desirable wife, Lena (Isabel Lucas). After googly eying each other for sometime, they start having an affair. Why she would seduce Doug is a puzzler–and Doug is just young and stupid enough not to ask this as well.

Not too long after this he’s pulled into a conspiracy, one that might just get them sent to prison! What is the conspiracy? Fortunately, the film does have a few nice twists and turns, though none of it seemed all that surprising to me, as a gorgeous and rich woman like this must have some other hidden agenda and my guess is that this is going to run through your mind as well as you watch. Director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, who also directed episodes of TV shows like “Gossip Girl,” & “Vampire Diaries”, brings the similar stylized mushy romance angle, something which makes those shows so popular into this film as well, the result – we are not able to take the thriller angle so seriously. A thriller surrounding a sexy story with adultery, quite a bit of skin and murder are not necessarily very original, but unfortunately the proceedings are at times quite predictable & dull to keep our attention throughout its run time. I think that the relationship between Doug and Lena is what let this film down due to Isabel’s casting. I felt as though she did not look old enough to play the alluring cougar which is what made their affair less realistic. Even the ending is a bit too perfect! Frankly compared to crap which comes out every now & then the film is not at all that bad. Surprisingly Nick Jonas was actually pretty good, he wasn’t great but he wasn’t as awful as I expected him to be.

That being said, it’s a good thing that Dermot Mulroney (who is totally wasted) wasn’t present in most of the movie because the six time award- winning actor might have out shined his co-star Nick. While he’s in his early 20s, he looks younger, so playing a character who is supposed to be a 16-17 year old worked. Isabel Lucas, although stunning, looks a little strange and unnatural with Nick. Regardless of this, she does have the voice, emotionless expression and body language of a classic James Bond girl in the beginning. This works for her as it suits the character she portrays but also might make it look like she cannot act. It would be interesting to see her in something else. So is it worth seeing? Yes, though it isn’t a film I’d rush to see- -though some of his old fans (provided they are now old enough to see a rated R movie) might enjoy seeing this harder edged Nick Jonas. On the whole, ‘Careful What You Wish For’ is your typical thriller that sports the usual plot twists which you will probably be able to figure out before they are revealed. If you can look past concepts from other films being recycled and if you’re a fan of Isabel Lucas and/or Nick Jonas, you’ll enjoy this film for what it is; but if you were expecting something better, than you will be left feeling disappointed.