Peter Sarsgaard in Coup! (Greenwich Entertainment)

The year is 1918. The Spanish flu is raging. Mega rich muckraking journalist Jay Horton (Billy Magnussen) has holed up in his mansion on Egg Island with his family and servants writing screeds against the federal government’s handling of the pandemic. (Sound familiar?) He writes eyewitness accounts of the working man, except he is not an eyewitness at all. He makes it up—and he is very popular. To cook the family’s meals during the quarantine, an employment agency sends Floyd Monk (Peter Sarsgaard), who, as we find out in the prologue, is not actually Floyd Monk. Monk sizes up Horton immediately and decides, in the best Bill Murray tradition, to upset the apple cart. In fact, if Coup! could be described as anything, it’s Caddyshack by way of the Coen brothers.

The worst kind of progressive, Horton has inherited wealth and tremendous self-worth. Though his stance on not eating meat, drinking alcohol, gambling, and disallowing guns in his house may seem admirable, he makes sure his staff follow the same rules. He enthusiastically supports the writing career of his wife, Julie (Sarah Gadon), as long as she authors novels and not the lowly plays she enjoys writing. Horton is too wide eyed, earnest and desperate to be liked to be completely insufferable. Magnusson, a charming actor, wisely gives you a glimpse of why his wife and servants adore him. But his ego is substantial, and Monk clocks it immediately.

Sarsgaard plays Monk deliberately as a bit of a cipher with a rakish, low-key charm. He easily insinuates himself into the family, starting minor rebellions among the faithful staff, the nanny Mrs. Tidwell (Skye P. Marshall) and driver Kaan (Faran Tahir). The housekeeper, Mrs. McMurray (Kristine Nielsen), has Monk’s number  at first sight, and is just as smart and wily as he is.

The fun of the film isn’t so much the plot, but in the interplay between the actors. Everyone is on the top of their game, and the script, through fairly predictable and not always plausible, has enough delectable moments that it is clear they are enjoying themselves immensely. Co-directors/co-writers Austin Stark and Joseph Schuman are sleek filmmakers, and though the budget seems relatively low, the sense of time and place, which is simply the mansion, is immersive. The production design is wonderful.

Though the filmmakers place their sights firmly on the elite progressives with their rigid rules they force everyone to follow, their main focus is Horton’s muckraking, which forces businesses to close during the pandemic. Horton, though well intentioned, has no idea how the majority of people feel or the impact of his articles. And if he feels threatened, well, do not underestimate him, even if he seems helpless and prissy.

Now, the film isn’t particularly subtle in its message nor is it very deep. It is, first and foremost, a comedy. Sarsgaard smugly captures the underlying menace of the undercover anarchist while Magnusson perfectly essays the magnanimous egotist. Gadon does a solid job as a woman who doesn’t know she’s unsatisfied until it is laid out for her, but out of the leads, her role is the most underwritten.

Regardless, Coup! is a hoot.