David Twoy's "A Perfect Getaway" is presented as one of those serial-killer-in-the-sticks film where the timid city folk - especially the emasculated male - has to get his hands dirty and spare some blood to shore up the testosterone to either (1) seek personal revenge or (2) appeal to his mate. The modern standard for this type of flick is Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs", where Dustin Hoffman is goaded into manhood after watching his newlywed getting ravaged by a bunch of British hooligans. And she enjoyed it! Take that, egghead. These sort of suspense thrillers get thrown around every few years to remind the Modern Male that violence is the only real solution to a problem.

But that's only what "A Perfect Getaway" appears to be. There is a plot twist that's fairly easy to figure out but  is so well-conceived you can forgive its predictability. When you find out there's a twist, the laws of screenwriting point the audience in certain directions. Like "The Law of the Economy of Characters" that states a screenwriter cannot introduce a character that does not serve a function to the plot. In this film, there's not a lot of characters to choose from. There are three couples hiking on  a remote trail in Hawaii. We have the main couple Cliff and Cydney as played by Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich. Cliff is the aforementioned emasculated dope; a screenwriter scared of his own shadow. His blushing bride seems too attractive for someone like Cliff. Then again, his anxiety has every right to extend past his relationship. On another island, newlyweds were killed and the perpetrators are still on the loose. Cliff and Cydney first meet up with Kale (Chris Hemsworth) and Cleo (Marley Shelton), who are hitchhiking along and have very ominous tatoos. Kale angers pretty easily. Then, our central characters take up with Nick (Tim Olyphant) and Gina (Kiele Sanchez) to get away from Kale and Cleo. Gina seems like a nice Southern belle who just wants her man to pop the big question. Nick is a little trickier: He talks about a secret role he had with the US military and carries a lot of cutlerly for a simple outdoors enthusist. Nick also seems to enjoy taunting Cliff quite a bit about his dorky glasses and timid nature. Is this Twoy's set-up for a final mano a mano show down between our hero and villain?

Not quite. Nick also functions into one of the Screenwriting Laws: The Self-Referential Character. Talking about Cliff's job as a screenwriter, Nick talks about the importance of the "big twist at the end of the second half" and the need for "red snappers." He means red herrings, as Cliff points out, which are potential plot twists designed to distract the audience from what is really happening. But is Nick only a "red snapper"? Or is Cliff? (Funny, too, that a film so reliant on its screenplay has such a simpering wimp of a scripter at its center.) I can't talk about it, except to say Twoy does do a fine job of not cheating with the revelation as so many films do. The first hour of the film is pretty uneventful, with lots of talking and lots of tension-filled atmosphere. The last thirty minutes has enough material to fill a whole movie. But I enjoyed the throwback to the old style of suspense where the film ratches things up over time rather than try to create some cliff hanger every five minutes. This movie is more worried about suspense than about how much blood it call spill. 

"A Perfect Getaway" is a B-movie thrill ride pretending to be standard when it's anything but. In a summer that's had a share of disappointments, this is a pleasant surprise.

Three stars (out of five)

"A Perfect Getaway" is rated R for graphic violence, language including sexual references and some drug use.