Parents' Guide to Welcome Home

This is a thriller that starts off with some promise, but soon lapses into predictability. It's a variation of the "city folk go into the countryside and fight creepy country folk" story -- this time an American couple from NYC more or less isolated in a villa in the Italian countryside. This couple, played by Aaron Paul and Emily Ratajkowski, are having relationship woes, and in case that isn't clear in the first scene in which they're shown having problems, don't worry, because there will be at least six other scenes making it crystal-clear that they're having problems, as Paul and especially Ratajkowski are in various stages of undress and gratuitous sex flashbacks and skinny dipping. This redundant aspect of the movie quickly grows tiresome and mars what might have been a decent movie.

On the whole, the acting isn't bad. As the creepy bad guy, Scamarcio does a decent job of showing the character's evil side at just the right time. The chemistry between Paul and Ratajkowski is pretty good, even if the writing belabors the strained relationship of their characters. The story itself, when not redundant, is a little too tidy, by the numbers. Cassie, Ratajkowski's character, seems to all of a sudden realize that Federico isn't a good guy after all, and it comes across as convenient to the story as most of the other plot points. What's left is the annoying feeling that a movie that, on paper and considering the talent involved, should've worked, but simply didn't.