Honey Don’t! Review
Honey Don’t! (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Ethan Coen, written by Tricia Cooke and Ethan Coen and starring Margaret Qualley, Chris Evans, Aubrey Plaza, Lera Abova, Jacnier, Gabby Beans, Charlie Day, Talia Ryder, Kristen Connolly, Josh Pafchek, Don Swayze, Lena Hall, Alexander Carstoiu, Kale Browne, Christian Antidormi, Billy Eichner and Kinna McInroe.
Ethan Coen has experience making good thrillers, great ones even. Look at classic movies like No Country For Old Men, which Ethan directed with his brother Joel, and you will see the best type of thriller possible. I didn’t care much for Fargo when it first came out in 1996, but later, began to see the Coen Brothers’ film-making skills upon closer inspection of the movie. In Ethan Coen’s singular directorial effort, Honey Don’t!, Ethan invents a sexy private investigator character, Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley, always radiant). She’s all dressed up with nowhere exciting to go, though, in Honey Don’t!, a formulaic and by-the-numbers cringe detective thriller/comedy that only works when it isn’t being showy and trying to reach for the stars. When it makes attempts to be funny, it often falls flat which undermines the integrity of the film which is being billed as comedy more than a thriller.
Uneasy tonal shifts make Ethan’s new picture very difficult to take at times. This film takes pot shots at small town authoritative figures, churches, their leaders and congregations and crooked cops. Although the new picture employs a stellar cast, the film often meanders without much of a purpose as we piece together plot lines drawn through lame conversations and actions that would most likely never occur in real life. Also, a movie with a strong female presence like Qualley is, in most cases, best directed by a woman. We saw that with the female directed The Substance where Qualley turned in, perhaps, the best work of her career. While the new film was co-written by a woman, Tricia Cooke, it is manipulative and it’s hard to really care for any of the characters.
Towards the end, three characters seem like they may be dead -two humans and a pet bird who flies into a window. When you’re rooting for the bird to be the sole survivor, there’s a major problem. Qualley’s Honey has a lot of personality and I love that about Qualley’s go-for-broke performance. Unfortunately, the men she is surrounded with are cardboard cutouts who seem to inspire an agenda to show dimwitted guys rather than tell a compelling story. One of these men is the Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans coming off the great dramedy, Materialists). The Reverend is a man who beds women regularly and advertises his place of worship misleadingly. Evans stumbles out of the gate in terms of providing depth to the character of Drew although Evans tries hard to prevent the character from becoming nothing but a stereotype more than a potential villain.
Then, there’s the character of Marty Metakawitch (Charlie Day) who tries to get Honey’s number. Marty is Honey’s colleague and constantly embarrasses himself to try to get her cell phone number. Characters like Marty probably don’t exist in this conservative political climate, but in this film, Day plays him over-the-top and one can’t sympathize with Marty’s perseverance to try to hook up with Honey. Day tries too hard.
Aubrey Plaza’s complex character, MG Falcone, hooks up with Honey, but things get in the way of their romance, unfortunately. Plaza has never acted this intense before and because of the disturbing nature of her role, the actress proves she has true range as an actress in her late work towards the end of the picture.
Too many scenes border on being viciously sadistic and are not properly planned for by the film’s haphazardly executed direction. A character is stabbed while a hot item is pressed against someone else’s face and hand, yet the person in question doesn’t experience much pain. The attempts at sex jokes are never on-point and will make the audience cringe. Case in point, a leather outfit that is shown on-screen at one juncture even though this type of silliness is not necessary to advance the plot or give insight into the mindsets of the characters.
Lera Abova is fun as a character riding a motorcycle. Talia Ryder, as Corinne, Honey’s niece, certainly has appeal and can be sympathetic at times. Billy Eicher, as Mr. Siegfried is interesting to watch, but the pieces don’t add up to a satisfying whole. Woman power movies are important and Qualley takes this role by the horns fearlessly to create her character, but the plot sells her short. This is something we’d probably see employed as a premise for a TV show that runs less than an hour. It’s only extended to feature length in order to promote the fact that it is female-led. That’s a notable accomplishment, but female-led movies deserve better entries than this one.
That being said, Qualley and Plaza have integrity and courage in the way they portray their characters here. I wouldn’t want to say Honey Don’t! should be the end-all for any of the people involved with this film’s careers. However, talent like the performers here need a more serviceable plot. These actors possess potential and need to be given material that runs longer than 90-minutes when telling a story as complicated as the story this film tries to tell actually is. There’s a movie that could work based on this story line. It could even star Qualley and Plaza too. However, the movie’s handling of Chris Evans’ one-note character ultimately helps sink the ship. Better luck next time, Ethan. Or better yet, call Joel. We miss you guys working together!
Rating: 5.5/10
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