Harris (Jack Cutmore-Scott) has a great job, friends and a chilled home life. Except he uses online dating apps like takeout menus and the women he beds are treated like the empty pizza boxes that get thrown away the next morning. Unconcerned with the feelings of his sexual partners, he soon connects with Riley, played by Lili Simmons, who makes it disturbingly clear that she will not be thrown away like the rest of them.
Lili Simmons, I of course remember her from her ill-fated turn on the 2017 season of Ray Donovan. And even though Cutmore-Scott apparently turned up somewhere in the first Kingsman (2014) movie, I prematurely concluded that I had no idea who he was, but felt there was something very T.J Miller-ish about his performance. A cheaper substitute perhaps? Noureen DeWulf of Anger Management fame is a welcome addition to the cast, but is she possibly too young to be playing our tortured lead’s boss?
Riley’s attack on Harris ticks all the boxes as far as carrying out a cruel and chilling hate campaign. And although it is the stuff of ball-shrinking nightmares, they’re all predictable tactics that you’ve probably seen before on some CSI cop show or thriller-based court drama.
What really draws you in is the on-screen chemistry between our two characters, which they play quite well as the douchey Lothario versus the creepy stalker girl. Together they help the movie succeed with tension, rather than nasty surprises, which couldn’t be achieved without the slick scribings of writer/director David Chirchirillo, who also contributed his talents to the excellent Cheap Thrills (2013) alongside Trent Haaga, the true Killjoy.
Bad Match establishes itself as a morality tale for the Tinder generation. A generation I thankfully know fuck all about and want nothing to do with, considering most are more likely to get a brand new STI than a second hook-up! Still, as this movie portrays, you’re dealing with more than just potential diseases, you’re dealing with human hearts.
LAST WORDS:
While this movie was likeable, I felt that it sacrificed a lot of possibilities in favour of its fairly plausible twist ending.