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44% Avg. Tomatometer 32 Reviews 56% Avg. Audience Score 50+ Ratings In this neo-noir social thriller, Oscar winner Renée Zelwegger stars as Anne Montgomery, a woman of extreme wealth who makes ...
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- Renée Zellweger
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44% Tomatometer 32 Reviews 56% Audience Score 50+ Ratings In this neo-noir social thriller, Oscar winner Renée Zelwegger stars as Anne Montgomery, a woman of extreme wealth who makes young ...
- (33)
- May 24, 2019
- Renée Zellweger
Watch What If...? — Season 1 with a subscription on Disney+. What If...? may not add much to the larger MCU narrative, but surprising takes on beloved characters and some of the best action...
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- August 11, 2021
- Bryan Andrews
- Renee Zellweger and Jane Levy give compelling performances in Netflix's new neo-noir thriller.
- What/If Season 1 Gallery
- Verdict
By Alicia Lutes
Updated: Dec 15, 2020 9:11 pm
Posted: May 24, 2019 5:00 pm
This is a spoiler-free review for Season 1 of What/If. You can stream all 10 episodes on Netflix on Friday, May 24.
If you like soapy noir thrillers, What/If may be an enjoyable, low-stakes binge for you. It goes through the motions, with moody lighting and secrets and twists aplenty. It feels low-budget even though it doesn’t always look it (though it certainly does look it from time to time, too) in that B-movie way many people dig. But if you want something to shock and surprise you, this story isn’t exactly it. To be fair, its leading ladies - Jane Levy and Renee Zellweger - are fantastic and compelling to watch. The frustration of What/If lies in its ability to thread the noir-thriller needle in an engaging enough way: it isn’t campy enough to be fun, or as smart as it thinks it is to be interesting. It just sorta lands with a flimsy thwap.
The premise for this season of the intended anthology series is your standard noir fare with a biomedical twist: mysteriously wealthy and successful VC capitalist and author Anne Montgomery (Zellweger) takes a financial interest in an on-its-last-legs medical start-up poised to change the game, started by scientist Lisa Ruiz Donovan (Levy). She sets up a seemingly indecent proposal between herself and Donovan’s husband, Sean (Blake Jenner) - NDAs and all. Twists and turns abound in a plot weighed down by a multitude of contrivances and intended shocks you can see coming a mile away. (As Montgomery’s book is called “At Any Cost,” I guess.) And the one or two you may not are only because you want to believe better of the creatives who decided that piling on was a good idea. And yet, What/If charges on, its eyes set on a fairly predictable and standard track that may be enjoyable for some. But it doesn’t really seem to be saying anything all that interesting or new.
It’s not for What/If’s lead actress not turning in a performance you want to keep watching, or her counterpart, Levy, both of whom make solid work of the lackluster material they were given. But in the end, so much of the dialogue feels unconsidered, choices plotted out in as-to-be-expected ways with at-times uninspired performances from a stock of Your Standard Supporting Characters. High School Sweethearts, A Secret Affair, Best Friend Betrayal, Unlikely Lover Hook-Ups, Secret Identities, Sexy Deception, So Many Lies, Adoption, Death, Jail, Moral Flips, and Shadowy Overlords, all makes appearances in this tale. Adding more doesn’t make something smart. It just makes it more.
Noir thrillers can work in our modern times, and the questions of morality are certainly a part of what makes them interesting, but What/If frustrates what could be a fun, absurd romp with painful dialogue, painful premises, and some truly one-dimensional twists that don’t live up to the hype of its leading ladies.
“After [Game of Thrones],” an editor who enjoyed the series explained to me, “it feels like a nice dessert.” To that point, there is no ultimate betrayal here as to what you’re going to get - sort of like chocolate pudding. What/If gives Renee Zellweger the Smartest Cold-Heartedest Rich B***h role we’ve long desired for her. Paired up gamely with J...
May 20, 2019 · TV Review: Renée Zellweger in ‘What/If’ on Netflix. The niche “What/If” serves is people nostalgic for the non-niche: Big-tent, unsubtle soap storytelling.
May 24, 2019 · At first, Lisa refuses. But the two of them realize how desperate things are, such as when her brother Marcos (Juan Castano) tells her that the money their parents gave her for the business was a...
May 25, 2019 · Netflix's ridiculous and over-the-top What/If features Renee Zellweger as a dangerous rich woman with terrible secrets. It's a little bit terrible and a little bit perfect.
