Wish You Were Here

Good beach-oriented crime/mystery told in an annoying, viewer-unfriendly way

Two couples from Australia take a vacation to the beaches of Cambodia in which the beau of one of the sisters mysteriously goes missing after a night of partying. Upon their return to Sydney they try to put the broken pieces together.

"Wish You Were Here" (2012) is a psychological crime drama/mystery with some thrills belonging to the subgenre about Caucasians visiting a dubious Southeast Asian country and running into inevitable problems, like “Vinyan” (2008), “No Escape” (2015) or even “The Beach” (2000). Teresa Palmer (Steph) is a highlight as usual while the locations are great and the cast is effective.

Unfortunately, the supposedly ‘hip’ shaky handheld cam and relatively quick editing in the first act get annoying real fast. Worse, the story is told in an unnecessarily convoluted manner with constant flash-forwards, flashbacks and flash-presents all jammed together with little indication. Sure, you’ll be able to put the pieces together by the second half, but why make the viewer work so hard?

While this makes the flick rather unenjoyable, there are several interesting psychological things going on that make it worthwhile, not to mention the aforementioned positives.

The film runs 1 hours, 29 minutes, and was shot in New South Wales, Australia, including the Sydney area, as well as Sihanoukville on the coast of Cambodia.

GRADE: B-/C+