Whilst this film has ambition and a laudable goal, due to heavy-handed foreshadowing a perceptive viewer can deduce the 'climax' within the first ten minutes of the film. The subsequent dénouement (something that might have made the predictable climax forgivable, if handled well) is, unfortunately, quite. . . well. . . stupid.
The killer, previously packaged as a warped genius, delivers a dimwitted dialogue at the end of the film that is devoid of much needed surprises and more reminiscent of something that a James Bond villain might say than of something that a twisted serial killer would. That the film itself ends on an upbeat note is the final nail in the coffin.
The special features on the DVD showcase an subplot casting the Professor as a serial killer (possibly as The Quick Brown Fox) that, if it hadn't been clipped from the finished film, would have made things much more interesting (though not any less predictable, due to the way the cut scenes were filmed).
In fact, that is the biggest problem with RSVP. The director seems intent on revealing all of the secrets up front, making this less like a Hitchcock film (or Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians) and more like a bad Columbo episode with a few extra bodies.
The killer, previously packaged as a warped genius, delivers a dimwitted dialogue at the end of the film that is devoid of much needed surprises and more reminiscent of something that a James Bond villain might say than of something that a twisted serial killer would. That the film itself ends on an upbeat note is the final nail in the coffin.
The special features on the DVD showcase an subplot casting the Professor as a serial killer (possibly as The Quick Brown Fox) that, if it hadn't been clipped from the finished film, would have made things much more interesting (though not any less predictable, due to the way the cut scenes were filmed).
In fact, that is the biggest problem with RSVP. The director seems intent on revealing all of the secrets up front, making this less like a Hitchcock film (or Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians) and more like a bad Columbo episode with a few extra bodies.