The Weekend Away movie review: Gossip Girl alum Leighton Meester anchors this unevenly paced, light whodunnit

Language: English The trope of a protagonist trying to piece together memories from a drunken night out is not any newer than close-up shots of a detective’s crazy wall of clues. Yes, it does hold your interest, but the template has been so widely used in crime narratives, that one can predict answers even before the questions pop up. And after a point, we continue to watch only to see if we were right, even as we half hope to be wrong. Netflix’s latest crime thriller, The Weekend Away is not a badly made movie, but stories like these have been told so many times, that they have now lost their lustre. New mom Beth, played by Gossip Girl veteran Leighton Meester, goes off on a weekend away with her best friend Kate (Christina Wolfe) in the beautiful Croatian coastal town of Split. She has had a few rough months, struggling with a stagnated marriage and postpartum depression. This weekend is a gift from Kate, who is in the process of getting divorced, and wants to desperately catch up with her dear friend after months of being apart. It looks like it’s going to be a holiday of indulgence in a luxurious Airbnb with a perfect view and a perfect itinerary, but we know things are about to go south, because the film opens with a shot of a body of a woman afloat on the sea as heavy discordant cello notes fill the air. After a drunk and drugged night out in town, Beth cannot seem to find Kate the next morning, and is further confused by hazy flashbacks from their night together. When Kate is found murdered, Beth becomes a prime suspect as someone who last saw her. She then befriends a local cab driver, Zain (Ziad Bakri), a Syrian immigrant who helps her unravel the clues, when the local police turn hostile, and appear in a rush to pin it on her.

Every character wears an air of suspicion and are purposely veiled. There’s a creepy host who secretly films his guests, there are escorts who are actually robbers, a corrupt police officer, a cheating husband, mysterious phone calls – the ingredients are all there for a potent, yet familiar thriller. Written by Sarah Alderson on whose 2020 novel the film is based, the story is taut, but the plot begins to wear thin as it rolls into the final act.

Director Kim Farrant crafts a slow, sinister build-up only to rush things in the second half, in this unevenly paced thriller. Certain twists in the plot feel contrived and act as mere tools to delay a predictable exposition that comes at the very last minute.

But every time the plot hangs loosely in a balance, it’s the performances that manage to anchor it. Meester solely carries the entire film on herself, as a harrowed and troubled protagonist who is torn between grieving the loss of her best friend and trying to piece together a cluster of disjointed clues. The actress deftly portrays the exhaustion of motherhood and juxtaposes it with the forced excitement of a reluctant night out with her extroverted friend. The chemistry between Meester and Wolfe is natural and the two, even in their limited screen-time together, appear convincing as two friends trying to reconnect and mend a strained friendship. There are very few films that manage to explore female friendships that go beyond tequila shots and beach holidays, and in that aspect The Weekend Away stands out. There’s also something about female directors looking at female friendships – it’s refreshing how they manage to keep things real without over- sentimentalising and cutting down on hysterics.

Another engaging subplot is the equation between Beth and her cab driver Zain, the latter played by a brilliant Bakri. The actor walks a thin line to keep his character amply mysterious, but at the same time calm and rational and deeply caring of his client-turned-friend. Adrian Pezdric is sufficiently creepy as the sinister landlord Sebastian, and his scenes with Beth make for some of the most tense moments in the film. A lot happens that beats logic, but the craft of these actors manage to sell the improbable. The story unfolds in the backdrop of a gorgeous touristy town, with stone-walled alleys bordered by the azure waters of the Adriatic Sea, that makes it all highly watchable, albeit not memorable. The camera veers between taut closeups and wide landscape shots to keep the proceedings photogenically sinister, just what a crime thriller needs. At a tight 90-minute span, The Weekend Away is a light whodunnit to go with that heavy brunch - one that won’t occupy any headspace but is good while it lasts. Rating: 3 (out of 5) stars The Weekend Away is streaming on Netflix. 

Kusumita Das is a freelance journalist from India currently living in Jerusalem. She writes on cinema, culture and travel, and in her free time tries to string together sentences in Hebrew.

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