Griff is the best, more on that later.
Death of a Unicorn (Dir Alex Scharfman – Resurrection, Blow the Man Down) is a film about lawyer Elliot Kitner (Paul Rudd – Ant-Man, Clueless, This is 40) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega – Scream VI, Wednesday) as they go to corporate retreat to discuss Elliot’s future role in the company with the imminent death of the very sick founder of the business.
During the drive to the retreat we can see that the relationship is rocky, to say the least between Elliot and Ridley. Ridley is still struggling to process her mother’s death and Elliot is more fixated on climbing the business ladder to listen to his daughter’s pain and what she is experiencing.
Since they are driving further and further into the mountains the reception goes from bad to non-existent and they are forced to interact with each which causes frustration and distraction. This causes Elliot to not be watching the road and crash into an animal.
This animal turns out to be a unicorn. Elliot wants to put the animal out of its misery while Ridley feels a connection and touches its horn. This takes her on a psychedelic journey into the universe and a sense of oneness with every living entity until she is splashed with blood as Elliot clubs the unicorn to death.
Being late to the retreat, they get the unicorn into their car and race to the house where they are met by the staff who question what happened to the car. We first meet Griff (Anthony Carrigan – Barry, Fatherhood), the housekeeper and scene stealer.
Elliot rushes into the house to apologise to Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant – Saltburn, Spice World), the head of the organisation, his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni – Madam Secretary, Bad Boys) and their entitled son Shepard (Will Poulter – Midsommar, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3).
Unfortunately for Elliot, the unicorn was very much alive and Ridley senses this connection and is again ignored by her father who is too busy kissing the Leopold’s butt to listen to his daughter’s concerns. But those concerns don’t care and now they are thrashing around in his car.
The unicorn tries to escape from the car and is shot dead by one of the groundkeepers. At the same time, Ridley’s acne has cleared up and Elliot’s eyesight has improved. The Leopolds seeing the regenerative properties of the unicorn want to keep it for themselves. They bring all their industrial might into harvesting and extracting this new wonder drug.
Ridley struggles in vain to convince her father that this is a bad idea and highlights the struggle of trying to do what is right while also balancing the financial requirements we face and wanting to provide for our family. Rudd is playing against his usual character being a brown-nosing corporate climber rather than an aloof man-child, it is perhaps not his most believable role but he gives it a good go. Grant is wonderful at hamming up the scenes and playing a self-centred ego manic.
Poulter kills at being a very punchable rich kid who makes Griff’s life a living hell with his incessant requests and Leoni rounds out the cliche wealthy family’s matriarchal presence where she seems caring and supportive but only in ways that help the family.
Death of a Unicorn is a bit of fun, with some laughs and some scares. It is not going to make you rethink how you view the world, and it is not asking you to, but it will give you something enjoyable to watch and it has given the world Griff.
25 March 2025 by Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe