Outcome Review: The Power of Saying Sorry

Jonah Hill’s Outcome is a plodding and uneven dramedy that works best when it’s trying to be sincere rather than funny.

With the help of his best friends since high school, Kyle (Cameron Diaz, of Back in Action) and Xander (Matt Bomer, of Fellow Travelers), as well as his “crisis lawyer” Ira Slitz (Jonah Hill, of The Wolf of Wall Street), Reef must apologise to anyone who might hate him. That way, he might find out who’s the mysterious person who is trying to ruin his life.

It’s not a bad premise, but in Jonah Hill’s latest directorial effort, it unfortunately results in a rather disappointing and dull experience. The mixture of “zany” comedy and sincerity doesn’t really work, especially since Reeves seems to be taking everything completely seriously, while characters like Ira feel more like walking caricatures. In any case, the more serious scenes work better than the supposedly funny ones. Ira, in particular, and despite being played by the director, is more annoying than truly amusing, and appears to have been included in order to turn the movie into some sort of “dark” comedy.

Regrettably, it doesn’t work. Most of the gags feel forced or even dated, and apart from Ira, nobody seems to be even trying to be funny. I must have laughed probably once or twice during the whole film, and not thanks to the crazy antics of the lawyer character, but rather due to a couple of references to controversial ex-stars such as Kevin Spacey or Kanye West. These are the only moments that seem to be trying to satirise anything, as the rest of Outcome plays more like a dramedy centring on the problems of an ex-addict trying to make things right.

Yes, that’s because Reeves’ Hawk is supposed to be an “ex-a*hole”; a beloved Hollywood star who used to be addicted to heroin, and who supposedly made life a living hell to many of his friends and co-workers, and even his mother, Dinah (Susan Lucci). Sadly, even though Keanu Reeves is one of my favourite actors, I feel he is miscast here. One never really gets the sense that his version of Hawk could have been an a*hole years before, as he plays him as gently as he seems to be in real life. Only one scene shows him mistreating one of his friends, but he is so low-key that said situation feels more like an expression of frustration than an actual lashing out.

The entire cast is great in theory, but most of them are given very little to do. Cameron Diaz and Matt Bomer play Reef’s best friends; she is little more than the Token Woman of the story, and he is, well, the Token Gay Guy of the film. Hill plays Ira like a cartoon (except during the scene in which Reef gets to meet his son, which is quite fun), and David Spade appears for one scene (and one phone call) as a neighbour of Reef’s. 

The great Martin Scorsese has a nice little scene with Reeves, playing Red Rodriguez (is he supposed to be Latino? Uh, oh…), Reef’s ex-manager when he was a child. This is one of the film’s few truly compelling moments, elevated by a rather emotional turn by Scorsese, who, apart from being a legendary director, is also a pretty good actor. He is vulnerable, he has a great little speech, and even though Reeves’ Reef doesn’t react all that much to what he has to say, the scene works as a representation of the way Los Angeles treats people, and the way its stars treat those who gave them their first chance at success.

Visually, Outcome is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, most of the film is shot rather plainly; the majority of scenes are made up of shot-reverse shots, with the occasional wide shot to mix things up. But on the other hand, I quite liked the colour grading of Outcome. Unlike most streaming fare, the movie has colour and isn’t afraid of using it, managing to present some striking imagery, especially whenever a scene is set near a beach or against an orange sky at sunset. Camerawork and blocking might be boring, but colour-wise, Outcome looks better than most other contemporary comedies.

Well, this certainly isn’t the outcome I was expecting. Given the talent both behind and in front of the camera, I wanted Outcome to be, at least, energetic and funny and maybe (just maybe) a bit biting. Additionally, since it’s being billed as a “dark comedy”, I expected it to be at least a tad outrageous, but no dice. Outcome works when it’s being sincere and when it’s treating its main character as a flawed human being (and also during Martin Scorsese’s only scene). The rest of the time, it feels like a misguided passion project; an unfunny and uneven dramedy full of wasted potential and questionable creative decisions. You can pass the time by watching Outcome during a lazy Saturday afternoon; just don’t expect to end up watching anything particularly hilarious or memorable.

Outcome will be available to stream globally on Apple TV from April 10, 2026.

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