The Weekend Away is filled with twists and turns, but unfortunately they are all mostly predictable in this less than intense thriller. Now available on Netflix.
I love a good thriller mystery as much as the next person, so perhaps that is why The Weekend Away fell flat for me. This film is mediocre on several levels. There are twists and turns throughout, but unfortunately the majority of them can be seen from a mile away. From the moment Kate disappears during a friends weekend with Beth, I knew what happened to her, and who did it. There are very obvious red herrings thrown at viewers, which only made the true culprit easier to spot.
Based off of a book by the same name, The Weekend Away stays fairly close to its source material. The author of the book is also the screenwriter for the film, so this makes perfect sense. Although there are a few small changes, the story pretty much plays out the same way.
Beth travels two hours from her London home to spend a weekend with her best friend Kate. She recently had a baby and is eager to get away from her child and husband and have a girls trip. Things don’t go according to plan though, and when she wakes up after a night out at a bar, Kate is missing. As the hours and days tick by, she suspects the worst. With local police not doing too much to help find Kate, she must turn to the taxi driver who is the only person who seems willing to assist.
The Weekend Away is just an hour and a half, and because of this it feels quite rushed at times. The “twists” are thrown at the audience so quickly that they barely have time to sit with one before things completely change. While this only annoyed me, as I was hoping for a more fleshed out movie, I can see why some would consider this a positive as it keeps the film moving.
The length is perfect for a thriller like this, I just wish that we were given more time with the story beats. If certain moments were allowed to breath a little bit more, the movie would have worked better.
Leighton Meester does a great job as Beth, but unfortunately the cast around her brings the movie down. Considering that she is very much in the dark about what happened to her friend, it is easy to relate to her and try to solve the mystery with her. The issue here though, is that The Weekend Away is so predictable, you almost want to shake Beth to wake her up and make her understand what is happening around her.
Overall The Weekend Away has its suspenseful moments, and it isn’t all bad. The lead performance is good, and the story is somewhat suspenseful at times, even though it is predictable. There are some moments that will have you second guessing what you think you have figured out, but the ending is seen from a mile away.
If this movie was playing in theaters, I would suggest not to spend your money on it. But since it is streaming for free on Netflix, it is the perfect movie to cuddle up to on a cold winter night.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
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About The Weekend Away
THE WEEKEND AWAY is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that follows two best friends on a vacation gone awry. When one of them goes missing, the other must prove her innocence but her efforts to get to the truth uncover painful secrets.
Directed by Kim Farrant.
Screenplay by Sarah Alderson.
Based on the book: ‘The Weekend Away’ by Sarah Alderson.
Starring: Leighton Meester “Beth”, Christina Wolfe “Kate”, Ziad Bakri “Zain”, Luke Norris “Rob”
