Staunch Test FAIL.
Beth (Leighton Meester) and Kate (Christina Wolfe) are two best friends who are spending a weekend in Croatia. Everything is perfect until Beth wakes up to find that Kate is missing. She can’t recall what happened the night before and when she starts investigating she uncovers some shocking secrets. So far, so familiar.
In the past few years, it seems like Netflix is trying way too hard to give its viewers questionable thriller movies starring popular actress from famous tv series. We saw that happening in Dangerous Lies (2020) starring Camila Mendes, Secret Obsession (2019) starring Brenda Song and Sightless (2020) starring Madelaine Petsch. These are all mediocre movies with simple plots that usually become more and more intricate just so they can shock their audience with a usually foreseeable final twist.
Kim Farrant’s The Weekend Away is no different, the only thing that makes it stand out from all those other films is its setting which is wonderful to look at, but that’s it.
Beth doesn’t have the characteristics to be a protagonist, she whines all the time and it looks like things keep happening to her and she’s never in control of anything. She is a new mom and she doesn’t want to party like Kate does, she doesn’t want to get wasted and she doesn’t want to take drugs, but that’s not what makes her dull character. She barely stands up for herself and it’s hard to root for her throughout the movie. In the end it is barely hinted that she is finally starting to have control over her life, but that’s not enough to make her a good female protagonist.
Her friend Kate looks much more interesting than her, but unfortunately she dies immediately and the audience doesn’t get to know her so well apart from learning subsequently that she had an affair with Beth’s husband.
The Weekend Away is not a violent movie, blood is barely shown but Kate is killed by Beth’s husband (he pushes her into the water). The house owner where they spend the weekend records everything that happens in the house – without the guests’ permission of course. One of the policemen who was helping Beth with the case is a rapist, he follows her and threatens her with a gun but, luckily, she kills him by accident.
This one is another #StaunchTestFail.
Simona Columbano