By: Quinn Que
Ethan Coen’s second solo directorial effort represents a disappointing sophomore showing of sorts. Honey Don’t! tries to make counterintuitive use of a talented cast and neo-noir setup, but the story meanders through an overlong ninety minutes that almost feels like two hours. The finished product offers little more than surface-level provocation disguised as style.
The story follows private investigator Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley) in Bakersfield, California as she investigates a series of suspicious deaths connected to a mysterious church and its narcissistic reverend (Chris Evans). Honey exchanges information with local police detective Marty Metakawitch (Charlie Day) whilst avoiding his romantic advances. She’s more interested in girls, like his coworker MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza). As the bodies and questions mount, Honey tries balance her work and personal lives, including her eccentric family, with mixed results.
While fans of the cast may find kernels of creativity in the casting and dialogue, particularly Qualley’s eponymous lead and Evans as a charismatic asshole faith leader, the film’s individual scenes fail to coalesce into anything meaningful. The performances, many of them ably playing against type, feel wasted on material that lacks substance. The brief conflict between Honey and the reverend lacked genuine pathos or payoff. A particularly pointless extended sequence at a bus stop ultimately goes nowhere, especially frustrating as part of a misdirected third act trying to resolve the mystery. The film finished often looked more like a series of set pieces and gags going nowhere slowly than a proper story. Qualley’s committed performance is admirable and testament to her talents, but the film itself is more of an empty exercise in genre pastiche.
Ethan Coen, co-writing with Tricia Cooke, demonstrates none of the careful narrative construction that marked his finer works with his brother. The artfulness and intentionality of his past outings seems greatly diminished, like an aging musician just playing warmed over variations on his existing catalog. It may be unfair to judge a modest effort like Honey Don’t! against the man’s family legacy, but Ethan Coen’s subsidiary writing and directorial effort is more surprising for its disappointments than its noirish mysteries. The story is full of stranded plot threads, underwhelming humor and an almost nihilistic indifference to logic or meaning.
Honey Don’t! feels like a filmmaker coasting on past reputation rather than engaging seriously with his craft. Despite a lot of game participants and decent premise, this neo-noir misfire is better avoided than endured. Save your time for detective stories that actually have something to investigate.