Bad story at the ElRoyale - 6/10

by Mohamad Khatib

  "Seven strangers, seven secrets, all roads lead here", that's the main slogan, so to speak, of Bad Times at the El Royale's official trailer, "ooooooo"…is my reaction after I watched it, thinking this strikes me as a story about a bunch of fishy characters, brought under the roof of one particular hotel. I said to myself there must be something suspicious going on with those people with possible twists and turns and certainly the hotel plays a big role in their story. Mmmmmmm not really…. They could have been all gathered in McDonalds for all I care.

   The story revolves around seven characters, each with his own mysterious past, eventually meeting at this once fancy hotel. Out of those seven characters, only two have genuine, dramatic ties to that place, one is that of Father Daniel Flynn, and Laramie Seymour Sullivan, a vacuum-cleaner salesman, while the others seem to circumstantially and conveniently go there for some particular reason tied to their history or present situations without the hotel having any real connection to them, even the character of Darlene Sweet, an underpaid singer, who happened to have rehearsed there at one time in one of the rooms, chooses this hotel because it is on her way to her new gig and job and it is cheaper. The bellboy/waiter/housekeeper Milles Miller happens to work there with his past sins having no relation to the hotel whatsoever and lastly, Ruth Summespring kidnaps her sister for one particular purpose and holds her in one of the hotel's rooms.

    I was really hoping that the hotel itself would be like an eighth character, with its glorious past, its unique bi-state division, one part in California, and one part in Nevada, its bugged rooms, and its hidden, maze-like space surrounding the back of the rooms with two-way mirrors, and a film camera. Making the hotel bi-state carries and reflects no dramatic weight and conflict in moving the plot forward. The mentioned characteristics is all we get. Perhaps even the movie like its characters is not what it seems, its mediocre premise is enveloped by outstanding cinematography and production design, stylish direction by Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), meticulous montage, and a nice soundtrack, held up by superb performances on behalf of Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Hamm, and Lewis Pullman but rather dragged down by the tedious and long duration of two hours and twenty-one minutes with occasional jumpy and aggressive violence in between.

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