The idea of a strangers meeting and agreeing to commit a murder swap of their respective spouses is tantalizing. Patricia Highsmith and Alfred Hitchcock famously explored the idea in Strangers on a Train, which is the clear precursor to Tubi’s latest thriller, A Kill for a Kill, though the new film gender-and race-swaps the characters.
In director Dylan Vox’s film, Destiny (Meyon Jacobs) is a successful author and speaker. As we see her speak to a sold-out auditorium at a women’s empowerment weekend, her talk is intercut with scenes of Toni (Tristan Cunningham) experiencing domestic abuse by her husband Marcus (Tarek Zohdy). Toni has snuck away to attend “Take It Back” because Destiny’s career is centered on her own experience surviving and thriving in the wake of a sexual assault; both women believe in the message about fighting back and reclaiming your power.
Alas Destiny’s personal life with wife and manager Kendall (Leah Pipes) isn’t media perfect. The wives have different career aspirations: Destiny wants to help other women and focus on her next book, while money-conscious Kendall wants Destiny to work with (and appease) investor group Leading Ladies. While the two headstrong women do share an intimate encounter, it’s not enough to prevent Kendall from serving Destiny divorce papers and threatening her as a fraud if Destiny doesn’t go quietly.
Naturally Kendall winds up dead by the pool shortly thereafter. It’s not a mystery, however; Kendall was pushed over the balcony of the suite by Toni, who previously proposed that she and Destiny should help the other take care of their spousal problems.
The premise is solid and the first act, when the battered wife and the career woman become embroiled in each other’s story is compelling. It’s when the story expands after Kendall’s death to include Destiny’s sister Faith (Paigion Walker), her fiancé Senator James Hawthorne (Matt Marshall), and Kendall’s disapproving mother Janice (an under used Veronica Cartwright), that things become a little unwieldy.
And that’s without including additional secondary characters like Destiny’s assistant Sufe (Emily Morales-Cabrera), with whom Kendall may have been having an affair, and Detective Guerrero (Juan Manuel Salcito) who is investigating the accidental death.
It’s not that A Kill for a Kill has too many characters and subplots to juggle that’s the problem. It’s that writer Jeremy M. Inman can’t decide which ones to focus on, so everyone and everything is constantly in play. As expected, Toni quickly reveals herself to be psychotic, randomly appearing in Destiny’s home and at a book signing. She’s insistent that only Destiny can kill Marcus, even though we see the abused woman murder at least two other people over the course of the film. Thankfully Destiny does question this, though Inman’s script never convincingly addresses – or even dodges – the issue, resulting in an antagonist who is less threatening than confusing.
Then there’s the issue of domestic abuse and sexual assault survivors. Pipes and Jacobs have good chemistry together and their love/hate marriage is imminently believable, but the narrative treats the “truth” about Destiny’s assault as a key plot point. It’s revealed that Destiny didn’t actually fight back against her attacker and Kendall and her mother weaponize this point to repeatedly paint Destiny as a liar and a cheat. It’s not not believing rape survivors, but it still doesn’t play particularly well; characters willingly ignore the obvious fact that Destiny is using her “victim mentality” (a quote from Heather Tom‘s Alina, the rep from Ladies Leadership) to actually help other women.
A Kill for a Kill goes pretty off the rails in the last act as Toni focuses on destroying Destiny’s personal and professional life. When it becomes clear that Destiny will never murder Marcus, Toni plots to frame her for Kendall’s murder, while also threatening the people Destiny cares about most. It’s all treated as deadly serious, but the climax, set at James’ fundraiser, is ridiculous, convoluted and theatrical in ways that run counter to the film’s earlier tone.
Had A Kill for a Kill embraced its camp potential earlier and simply succumbed to lurid melodrama, the last act would have played better, but that was never an option because its twin subjects – sexual assault and domestic abuse – are too serious. The plot machinations and deceptions of the back half should be more fun than they actually are, but they can’t be (at least not in this form). Inman’s script effectively backs itself into a corner, resulting in a climax that instead unravels the whole film.
The take-away is unsatisfying and more than a little messy, both from a narrative and a messaging perspective. It’s a shame because Jacobs is doing good work anchoring the drama, particularly Destiny’s frustration with being manipulated by both her wife and a super fan. Even in the most ridiculous moments, such as when Destiny rushes into the police station to report Toni, Jacobs manages to make the ridiculous watchable.
Cunningham doesn’t fare as well. Partially because her character is too one-note, but also because Toni is underdeveloped. She shows up to threaten and antagonize, and then she’s gone for long stretches. Pipes, meanwhile, can do bitchy with her eyes closed, but the Sorority Row actress infuses an understated air of defeat in Kendall’s scenes with Destiny. It’s clear that they love each other, but they don’t work as a couple anymore.
That’s one reason why the film struggles in the wake of Kendall’s death: it has lost its emotional center. In hindsight, it’s evident that A Kill for a Kill never fully recovers from the heights of its first act, leaving the film to limp along to a lackluster reveal that ends the thriller on a sour and unsatisfying note.
Overall, despite adopting a clever contemporary spin on Highsmith and Hitch’s familiar story and featuring enjoyable performances from Jacobs, Pipes, and Cartwright, A Kill for a Kill never quite reaches its potential.
A Kill for a Kill is now streaming on Tubi.
