Death of a Unicorn (USA/Hungary 2025: Dir Alex Scharfman)

One aspect of the mythical unicorn, whose origins date back to ancient civilisations in China and India, was the healing properties of its single horn. More recently the term has been used to describe a rare and highly desirable person or thing that possesses unique qualities or characteristics.

Both of these equally apply in Alex Scarfman's debut feature, a satire on commodity and power which centres on bereaved dad Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega). When we meet them they've arrived in a country which is supposed to be Canada (but is actually Hungary); with Elliott's wife/ Ridley's mum dead from cancer, it's up to dad to make ends meet; hence an invitation to the mountain home of a wealthy pharma boss, terminally ill Odell Leopold (Richard E.Grant) for a possible company position.

Elliot and Ridley's relationship isn't great; you get the sense that his deathbed promise to his wife, to provide for the family, has been an excuse to throw himself into work. So the prospect of a long weekend with a group of people whose philanthropic exterior masks a cold, heartless family, where profit is all, does not excite Ridley. An argument on the road makes Elliot lose concentration and he hits an animal that has strayed into their path; a white haired quadruped with a horn that, when touched by Ridley, gives her an out of body experience which may be connected with her sudden miracle loss of acne.

Elliot puts the thing out of its misery with a tyre iron and bundles the body into the back of the rental. But when they arrive at the Leopold house, slightly shaken, the beast comes back to life to the amazement of everyone, namely Odell, his wife Belinda (Téa Leoni), their louche son Shepard (Will Poulter) and much abused family retainer Griff (Anthony Carrigan); until the housekeeper Shaw (Jessica Hynes) callously shoots it. But the discovery that the unicorn's blood can cure everything from Elliot's myopia to Odell's cancer turns the family's attention to the profitability of the beast's corpuscles, and Ridley's dad is roped in to their marketing strategy with the promise of lucrative employment. His daughter, meanwhile, who seems to have developed a mental bond with the animal, has been investigating old tapestries containing the story of the unicorn; her warning to the family, that the beasts will seek revenge, goes unheeded.

Death of a Unicorn sets itself up as a satire, but the subject matter is so crass and obvious - rich people bad, the environment must be protected - that it remains throughout a subtlety free exercise. But the movie tries to establish its comedy credentials too (the best satire doesn't need to rely on yucks); and falls completely flat. Every sotto voce comment lands badly, the feuding characters seem to have strayed in from a middling 1980s 'mirthfest' (part of me wondered whether the title was a riff on the Arthur Miller play 'Death of a Salesman') and the pratfall violence, mixed up with some second rate CGI creature action, is just messy. There is clearly some talent on screen but most try far too hard, seeking laughs in a succession of embarrassing facial movements.

So the film ends up uneven, painfully forced and, sorry, dreary; I looked at my watch, thinking that we must be half way through the 107 minute movie, and barely half an hour had passed. Only Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd salvage something from their performances, but that's mainly because they just act, when all around them some terrible farce seems to be taking place. Painful.