Chris Evans has struggled to find his footing since wrapping up his eight-year run as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once at the peak of box-office glory, he has since fallen to supporting roles and straight-to-streaming projects. Sacrifice , which stars Evans as Mike Tyler, a movie star still reeling from a public meltdown, marks his first leading role in a film seemingly poised for a theatrical release. Unfortunately, Evans should’ve taken more time in choosing his next project, because Sacrifice is yet another misfire in his post-Marvel filmography.
Sacrifice opens in fairly conventional fashion, with Mike Tyler (Evans), a once-popular movie star, trying to repair his public image a year after a highly publicized breakdown by attending a lavish gala event hosted by Braken (Vincent Cassel), the richest man in the world. Evans is, unsurprisingly, convincing as an arrogant, smug asshole, something he proved in Knives Out (2019). But he also shows a vulnerable side of a man desperate to move on from his past mistakes, which is easier said than done. While Mike is given ample depth and backstory, it comes at the expense of every other character, who are all reduced to hollow archetypes.
The film takes a sudden, wild turn when a radical group, led by Joan ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), holds the gala attendees hostage, claiming that the world is going to end unless a chosen few are sacrificed. Despite her already long and varied career, it’s rare to see Taylor-Joy play an outright antagonist, embodying a character who is erratic, violent, and possibly delusional. Yet, as with so many of her iconic roles, she layers the performance with enough humanity to make her character’s actions all the more unsettling.
Unfortunately, that’s where the praise for the cast ends. Fans hoping for a substantial part from Salma Hayek-Pinault will be disappointed, as her role does not go beyond being the wife of Braken. Even John Malkovich’s presence feels more like a marketing ploy than a performance, included mainly to catch eyes on a cast list.
Sacrifice ‘s biggest problem lies in its inability to maintain momentum after an exciting incident. It gestures at profound ideas about religion and faith, but delivers them mostly through characters shouting their beliefs and forcing them onto others. Somewhere inside Sacrifice is a far more compelling film, one that a sharper, better-developed script might have brought to the surface and left a lasting impression.
