Ivan Šardi/Netflix
As Netflix continues to mass-produce authentic films, it’s change into simpler to identify the weather and safeguards put in place to ensure as many eyeballs as potential so the streamer can gleefully announce on Twitter that one among its movies broke a brand new report for viewership (with out offering any proof).
Frequent shoppers of those movies—versus those bought and distributed by Netflix—know they’re comparatively brief, usually clocking in underneath two hours. The plots are easy and straightforward to observe. They’re paced in order that one thing eventful is occurring at each second to protect your consideration. There’s hardly any experimenting with sound or cinematography. And in case you’re folding laundry or cleansing your bed room whereas watching, characters will sometimes announce what they’re doing to maintain you in control, very similar to a normal telemovie or a primetime present. Most importantly, as a result of they’re confined to a particular, profit-driven blueprint involving rigorous testing, these films normally aren’t nice.
In that approach, it’s not completely stunning that The Weekend Away, Netflix’s newest authentic movie, debuting Thursday, feels extra like an errand than a bit of artwork. The trailer for the brand new thriller—which relies on the novel of the identical title by Sarah Alderson, who wrote the script—teased a extra complicated, mystifying psychological thriller due to some artful enhancing. And despite the fact that the movie’s overseas setting and its material, which considerably resembles the real-life story of Amanda Knox, appeared overly acquainted, a criminal offense story about feminine friendship, intercourse, medicine, and scattered reminiscences appeared prefer it might take some enjoyable and thrilling turns.
After which there’s the truth that The Weekend Away is a uncommon star automobile for Leighton Meester, whose iconic function as Blair Waldorf on Gossip Woman within the mid to late aughts by no means blossomed into the A-list performing profession she deserved, regardless of her showing in numerous mainstream tasks within the years since. The brand new movie’s logline even evoked the 2011 thriller The Roommate,through which she provides a thematically retrograde however enthralling efficiency as a mentally unstable faculty scholar who nurtures a daunting obsession with a feminine pal.
Sadly, whereas a brand new Netflix film will most definitely provide Meester extra visibility and generate some nostalgia, it doesn’t do her any favors as a gifted performer.
It’s straightforward to see how The Weekend Away, directed by Kim Farrant, works as a fascinating seashore learn, as we get concise glimpses into the characters’ private lives and their difficult, unhealthy relationships to at least one one other. However the gradual construct of the novel’s plot and central thriller doesn’t translate nicely within the display screen adaptation, which as a substitute feels desperate to get itself over with.
Meester performs Beth, a younger mom in an unsatisfying relationship with an English man named Rob (Luke Norris), who has a subtly distrustful vibe we decide up on early within the movie. Beth flies from her residence in London to Croatia to spend a weekend along with her free-spirited, cocaine-snorting greatest pal Kate (Christina Wolfe), who’s just lately divorced and dwelling extravagantly off her ex’s cash. When the 2 exit for an evening of clubbing, Kate introduces Beth to a gaggle of males and encourages her to have a one-night stand to doubtlessly re-charge her presently chaste relationship. After agreeing to mingle with the blokes, Beth wakes up the following morning with just a few startling reminiscences of the earlier evening. Blood is splattered on the ground and Kate is nowhere to be discovered.
Beth promptly reviews a lacking individuals case to Croatian police, who exhibit the extent of indifference you'll count on a few girl who does coke and takes males residence from golf equipment. From there, we be taught some new developments and stunning revelations about Kate and Beth’s relationship and some mysterious aspect characters. Nevertheless, the movie maintains a gentle, formulaic rhythm all through that doesn’t permit for any actual suspense or emotional buildup earlier than Beth uncovers one thing new. Likewise, we arrive at completely different places and glean new info the way in which you'll transfer a bit round a board sport till you get to the inevitable finish.
In relation to the movie’s pacing, one among The Weekend Away’s most evident points is that Beth’s journey in fixing Kate’s disappearance doesn’t come throughout as significantly troublesome, regardless of the genuinely disturbing and overwhelming scenario she’s in. She’s a surprisingly fast-thinking sleuth and vigilante with easy alternatives to snap photographs, sneak into forbidden areas, and parse by way of proof. Moreover, a lot of her mission is aided by a good-looking Syrian cab driver named Zain (Ziad Bakri), whose immaculately timed appearances and selfless contributions to Kate’s case immediate perpetual eye-rolling.
Ivan Šardi/Netflix
Ivan Šardi/Netflix
The movie makes no effort to counteract the stereotypes and cliches that emerge when a person of Zain’s ethnicity and immigration standing acts as an unpaid chauffeur and safety guard for a random white girl embroiled in severe authorized drama that threatens his personal livelihood. There’s a concerted deal with his generosity and kindness that mockingly underscores the truth that he shouldn’t be doing Beth any favors in any respect. Moreover, his characterization leans right into a drained trope that justifies an immigrant’s existence primarily based on their morality and repair. General, the usage of him on this story seems like a white girl’s bizarre, problematic fantasy that ought to’ve been left within the drafts and, ideally, by no means written down in any respect.
Probably the most promising but unfulfilled side of The Weekend Away is the perplexing friendship at its core that will get little display screen time or introspection. In a short dialog over dinner at the start of the movie, we see that Kate and Beth’s pursuits and methods of shifting by way of life are blatantly at odds. Directly, Kate appears to admire and lengthy for her pal’s boldness and disrespect for conventional social guidelines whereas additionally discovering her conduct extraordinarily discomforting. Finally, the 90-minute flick doesn’t have sufficient time to flesh out their dynamic or dig into their historical past, which will surely improve the psychological side of the movie and make Beth’s potential criminality extra of a respectable query mark.
In sum, The Weekend Away is a waste of Meester’s time and expertise, although she’s genuinely good with the fabric she’s given. Throughout my screening, I stored pondering how a lot better the movie might have been with Meester embodying the extra vivacious Kate and, clearly, with the prospect to get to know her as greater than a tragic get together lady. Whereas this film will most likely find yourself on Netflix's High 10 listing over the weekend and perhaps even change into a trending matter on-line, it owes its good star much more.