Review: 'Death of a Unicorn' aims to blend gory comedy with social satire, but the mix only works sporadically

The satire in the chaotically funny “Death of a Unicorn” may be obvious at times, but the targets — a family of selfish billionaires who made their ill-gotten wealth in pharmaceuticals — are too irresistible.

The death referred to in the title comes very early, as Elliot (Paul Rudd), a corporate lawyer, and his sullen teen daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), are driving through a game preserve. Then Elliot hits something in the road. When they get out of the car, they see it’s a unicorn, bleeding purple on its pure-white fur. Ridley touches the creature’s horn, and has a cosmic vision — until Elliot whacks the animal with a tire iron, thinking he’s putting it out of its misery.

They load the creature into the back of their vehicle, and continue up to the secluded woodside mansion of Elliot’s boss, Big Pharma CEO Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), who’s dying. While Elliot is trying to get Odell to sign some papers, he notices that he doesn’t need his glasses any more — while Ridley’s face, on which unicorn blood splashed, is suddenly free of acne. Then the dead unicorn turns out to be alive, and Odell realizes the animal could provide a miracle cure.

The reactions of the rest of the Leopold family are curious. Odell’s wife, Belinda (Téa Leoni), the family philanthropist, talks about how to ration out the unicorn’s curative powers to the truly deserving — which means rich people like herself. Their son, Shepard (Will Poulter), an idiot who fancies himself a deep thinker, thinks he’s found an elixir for immortality — by pulverizing the horn and snorting lines of the powder.

While Odell’s in-house doctors (Steve Park and Sunita Mani) run tests, Ridley researches the mythology of unicorns — and finds they’re not the sweetly innocent creatures of lore, but blood-thirsty killing machines. And more seem to be coming up to the house.

Writer-director Alex Scharfman, in an audacious feature debut, locates some barbed humor in the hypocrisies of the wealthy Leopold family, talking a good game about the greater good until their greed and ambition show them as they really are. The material gives Grant, Leoni and especially Poulter room to reveal their money-grubbing selves.

Where this plan starts to come undone is when it tries to get Rudd, the most amiable movie actor ever created, to join the Leopolds in their venality. It never feels authentic, because it’s hard to think of a less plausible actor in the role, outside of casting a Smurf.

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‘Death of a Unicorn’

★★★

Opens Friday, March 28, at theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong violent content, gore, language and some drug use. Running time: 107 minutes.