For some reason, this movie flew under my radar for far too long and now that I’ve seen it, my only regret is that I didn’t get the opportunity to watch it much, much sooner! I went into this without any information at all really, and I’m glad that I did. I happened to see a post on Bloody Disgusting about a Nick Stahl horror film and that was all I needed to read.

I will give you a giant warning, What You Wish For is a solid thirty minutes or so of an extremely slow build (the beginning is boring as shit, if I’m being honest), so if you haven’t got the patience to sit around and wait for what I would call a worthwhile payoff, at least allow me to convince you to fast forward to the best bits, because completely skipping this film would be a shame. (Don’t worry, no spoilers await you.)

All you need to know about the plot is that Nick Stahl plays a chef on the run from some gambling debt who ends up in South America, hiding out with a friend. The two friends seem to be hiding more than a few secrets from one another and after a few days, Stahl’s character finds himself assuming the identity of another man in order to keep the loan sharks from hurting anyone. Little does our leading man know, the identity he’s just stepped into has a whole other dumpster fire of problems to contend with.

I was pleased with every turn this movie took and it’s been a long time since a movie made me go, “oh, okay!” and honestly, for every trope or predictable moment, they were just done so well. Stahl carried this role tenfold and everything from the practical effects to the beautifully chosen filming locations and the amazing looking food had me loving this film. The only thing I can’t say is that I loved it start to finish because the beginning was really far too drawn out and unnecessary.

What You Wish For, despite its rocky start, is a great tale of “greener grasses,” encapsulating our tendency to idealize what we don’t have while we drown in our own troubles, blind to the reality that what we see on the surface doesn’t often reflect the full picture.