Of all the dire April Fools’ Day jokes wrought upon the Earth earlier this month, perhaps the most grotesquely cynical arrived in my inbox bearing the subject line “Hollywood actor Patrick Wilson, 41, accused of murder?” The email, dispatched by a tinpot PR agency of questionable legitimacy, claimed that the newly ascendant star of the Insidious franchise had murdered his best friend’s spouse in scenes supposedly reminiscent of “Wilson’s most recent film Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife, a black comedy set to be released in the UK on DVD 13th April”.
It seems incredibly unlikely that Wilson gave his approval for the hoax, but before you’re tempted to feel sorry for the guy, rest assured that any association with Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife puts him roughly as proximate to a misogynistic hate crime as the spoof bulletin suggests.
In the film, Wilson plays a floundering TV actor who conspires with his friends to kill the irritating wife of a downtrodden acquaintance, in a scenario that the film-makers presumably hope will come across as edgily satirical rather than glaringly odious.
The plot recalls the 2001 Jason Biggs vehicle Saving Silverman, in which two slackers kidnap a friend’s controlling spouse to free him from her domineering clutches, but the sheer gendered bile on display here – one justification given for the killing is that the dead woman breastfed her child for too long – makes that film look like The Handmaid’s Tale.
A quick Google search reveals that several of the lead cast members are related to writer-director Scott Foley, including Wilson, who became his brother-in-law after marrying the sister of Foley’s wife Marika Dominczyk (both Marika and her sister also appear here). For all their sakes, here’s hoping the family tree extends this side of the pond too, because all the dodgy press releases in the world aren’t going to help Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife find an audience beyond its creators’ blood relatives.
Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife is out on Matchbox Films, DVD & VOD
Also out this week
Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb Ben Stiller goes to the British Museum.
What We Do In The Shadows New Zealand vampires go vérité.
Black Sea Born marine Jude Law goes underwater.
