From Jeremy Kibler

Writer-director Nicholas Tomnay’s What You Wish For is a sly, diabolical cooker of a morality thriller that would pair well with 2022’s The Menu. Both involve class disparity—and, well, the art of cooking for a high-class dinner—and both are surprisingly funny if you like your humor burnt to a crisp. Let’s just say that What You Wish For goes where everyone thought The Menu was going to go and makes you sit in a moral conundrum with its central character. 

Nick Stahl plays Ryan, a chef with gambling problems, so much so that his mother’s life is on the line. He gets out of town and goes to Colombia where he meets up with Jack (Brian Groh), his culinary school roommate whom he hasn’t seen in 12 years. Jack is also a chef and living an extravagant life for himself. When Ryan wakes up in the morning, his life gets a little better but with a morally questionable choice. It leads to Ryan being mistaken for Jack by Imogene (a coolly captivating Tasmin Topolski), Jack’s agency employer, and preparing for a busy evening. The grass is never greener, that’s for sure.

13 years ago, filmmaker Tomnay made a modest thriller with his directorial debut, The Perfect Host, which came to life with a cheekily menacing performance from David Hyde Pierce. Beginning as a child actor and then continuing to work but never getting the mainstream credit he has deserved, Nick Stahl gives a skilled lead performance that this film requires. Ryan is stoic and not easily likable but more than a mere conduit into this outlandish cook-for-the-rich scenario. Fortunately, Stahl finds a quiet desperation and an honest empathy into this man’s own scheme of deception before he even knows what he’s signed himself up for in the long run. Stahl gets to interact with others, but his best opponent is with Tasmin Topolski, who effortlessly conveys heartlessness like it’s her job. 

If we’re talking around what actually happens, that’s because going into What You Wish For completely cold should make for the most rewarding experience. The film intrigues from the start, and then just keeps expertly spinning other plates, whether it’s with the arrival of Detective Ruiz (Randy Vasquez) or the reappearance of fellow traveler Alice (Penelope Mitchell). A few logistical questions concerning the dessert portion of the meal notwithstanding, this is an unsettling, tightly coiled genre piece that satisfies like a full meal. It makes you rethink your dreams and really, really rethink what you have on your plate. 

Rating: 4/5

What You Wish For hits VOD and select theaters on May 31, 2024.

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