Movie Review: Us (2019)

Us (2019) written and directed by Jordan Peele

An upper-middle class family heads out for summer vacation to their house on the lake. Dad (Winston Duke) is excited because he finally owns a boat for his dock on the water. The kids are worried about getting cut off from their wifi. Mom (Lupita Nyong'o) is a little less than comfortable, especially when they go back to Santa Monica where she was once separated from her parents as a child. In the flashback to 1986, her parents are celebrating her birthday and she happens to wander off into a seemingly abandoned fun house. In the hall of mirrors, she runs into another girl exactly like her. In the present, her son wanders off, setting off a mild panic. He's recovered quickly but that night a mysterious family of four shows up in their driveway. The driveway family invades the house and it becomes clear they are doubles of the family. Home invasion horror ensues.

The movie starts with an interesting premise and nurses it along for a while. Then a bigger picture is introduced and more of what's going on and what happened before (i.e., in 1986) is explained. Unfortunately, the more that gets explained, the more ridiculous and implausible the movie appears. That might be okay if the film makers had a bigger metaphor or interesting commentary to make. The obvious political interpretation is hamfisted and counterproductive. Peele's interpretation (which he talks about on the DVD special features) is more social in nature but also unconvincing given the movie he made. He also says he wanted to make a movie about dopplelgangers in the tradition of movies like The Parent Trap and Vertigo. Taken on just that level, this is an okay film.

The worst thing about the movie is that it clearly intends to be about ideas and gives the viewers plenty of time to think about them. I did have fun trying to figure out what's going on. But then the explanations came, explanations that were surprising in a bad way, and they got less coherent and less convincing as the movie continued.

Not recommended. It's hard to believe this is the same director that made the fantastic Get Out.