The Estate (2021) by James Kapner

Director: James Kapner

Year: 2021

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Plot:

Growing tired of their living conditions, a billionaire's young son and wife decide that they need to kill him in order to capitalize on the life insurance policy available. After inquiring about the services of a stranger to be a hitman, it's successfully carried out and they're able to put their plan into a final touch by inviting him to live with them to drop suspicion on the incident. As they spend time together and form a special love-triangle relationship, they start to question how much longer they can keep the relationship going as tensions rise and they're forced to engage in more murders to keep the secret going.

Review:

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable if somewhat flawed comedic-laced thriller. The central setup, involving the arrangement and conditions that they enter into with each other, is a really enjoyable storyline that allows the film to indulge in the kind of action that's usually found in these kinds of films. The use of duplicitous characters in a sleazy situation offers this a fantastic setup that is exploited rather well with the generally sleazy atmosphere of the sexually-charged relationship that develops between all three. Despite this, the campy and lighthearted tone of everything including the jokes, wacky quips, and generally absurd appearance of this one which goes on quite well with the fast-paced tempo which keeps everything quite nice and fun.

That said, the film lives and dies on the idea of following these particular characters around. Filled with greed, lust, content for anything beyond their own desires, and absolutely spoiled with white privilege, the fact that trying to follow and sympathize with anyone here will be a tall order. Far too much of this one is spent trying to see them get out of the predicament they've created which is the entire point yet it's these particular types of characters that are doing that. That becomes the main detrimental factor here which manages to showcase the type of characters that are so much of a personal preference that anyone who doesn't appreciate these types of characters will be so turned off here that it'll be unwatchable for them.