Capsized

“Spoilers”

This is about 4 employees from different parts of the country who meet on a mysterious camp retreat so that Allegra Adams, the head of their corporation, Vesta, can pick one. For what, I have no idea and neither do they. But a lot of words are thrown around like “contract”, “bid”, “launch” “scout” “proposal” and “take the lead”. We do know that Allegra is the powerful and successful CEO of this corporation which has something to do with something technological and that the 4 employees are utterly in her power. They are on this weekend work retreat to compete against each other sometimes and be teammates doing team building sometimes by playing infantile and sometimes dangerous games. Yes, raw eggs and running with them are involved.

Our heroine, Maya, (Cindy Busby), is promised an executive position by her immediate boss if she beats her fellow participants into a bloody pulp using fair means or foul. The phrase “cream rises to the top” is used. If Maya wins, her boss figures, her East Coast Office wins and they will “get the contract.”  It seemed to me that this strategy might not sit too well with the most high boss of bosses, Allegra, who after all, hand-picked all 4 of the participants and who are all her “head engineers,” “ lead scientists,” or “chiefs of production” except Cindy, who works in a cubicle. That is weird. But also weird is that Allegra invited Cindy personally without explanation, skipping over the chain of command entirely.  But Cindy dutifully tries to follow the little boss’s strategy for winning the project. Fortunately, she is just too nice to actually follow through with anything nefarious. But unfortunately, she keeps a handwritten notebook of all of her sketchy spying and dubious plans for her rivals which ultimately leads to the big misunderstanding at the end. Her notebook is somehow found by the man she has grown to love half burned up (but still readable) after she threw it in the campfire in a fit of shame and regret. Why she would throw the notebook of iniquity in the fire goes unasked by Ben and unanswered. But I get ahead of myself.

This is mostly a fish out of water story, with indoorsy Maya, symbolized by her pink clothes while the others are in flannel and khakis, being the fish. It is mostly played for laughs which are not very funny. Lots of antics in this one. Cindy seemed to be trying too hard and Ben Hollingsworth who plays her outdoorsy love interest was handsome but boring.

As Allegra puts them all through their paces with the deadly, interminable, and inane games, camping, and whitewater rafting, I was hoping against hope for a big twist that would partially save this mess. No, not a fatal accident. I was waiting for one of the young tech wunderkinds to finally stand up and challenge Allegra the genius on what the hell all this nonsense had to do with determining which office was most qualified to lead the project at hand. Allegra would then congratulate this maverick on being the only one with a grain of sense and an ounce of leadership, declare them the winner, and ask them what took them so long they should have quit on the first day. I can dream, can’t I? But no, it was all on the level even though they all got promotions and no one got fired. We never find out who “got the contract.” Maya ends up being sent to Paris along with her new boyfriend to head up Vesta’s new international office jumping over the lame promotion she was promised in the beginning by her New York City boss who has apparently been sidelined entirely. And a Lodge is saved.  This one was limp with cliches, tropes, and stereotypes. It made no sense and just seemed like a lame excuse to give Cindy Busby still another adventure in the great outdoors. I like Cindy, or I used to, and Hallmark seems to love her, but it’s been years since I’ve seen her in a movie I really liked a lot.