Usually, a movie in which the main character has some sort of notable health condition revolves around their struggle to either beat it or keep living in the face of the daily struggle (see: 50/50, The Bucket List, Soul Surfer—actually, don’t see Soul Surfer). But The Ticket takes the miraculous healing of a blind man as merely the jumping-off point for a much more ambiguous tale of what to do after you’ve triumphed. Dan Stevens (Legion) plays the protagonist as a man who rebounds from his surprise recovery by turning into an aggressive overachiever at work, only to see his personal life start to fall apart as a result. It’s the kind of story that sounds like after-school-special-schmaltz, but nothing about the trailer suggests any kind of moralistic simplicity. Instead, it all plays like an eerie thriller, one in which all the routines of home life and corporate affairs carry an underlying tone of menace. The title comes from an anecdote Stevens’ ambitious go-getter delivers, motivational speaker-style, about a guy who prays to God every day to win the lottery, but never actually buys a ticket. His audience, chuckles, but the trailer’s unsettling mood implies a far darker meaning. You can buy your own ticket for The Ticket when it opens April 7.
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