Film Review: The Weekend Away

Director: Kim Farrant
Starring: Leighton Meester, Christina Wolfe, Amar Bukvic
Running time: 90 minutes

A psychological thriller with an international cast and filmed on location in Croatia, The Weekend Away tells the story of two friends, Beth (Leighton Meester) and Kate (Christina Wolfe), who plan a fun weekend escape in order to indulge in some drinking, drugs and romance, leaving their complex social lives at home. Needless to say, their holiday goes horribly wrong. Within the first fifteen minutes of the film, Beth wakes up alone in the apartment following a debauched night on the town, Kate is missing and Beth fails to recall crucial details of their evening. Suspicion is mounted against her by the local police who initially fail to take Kate’s disappearance seriously, and the film’s narrative follows Beth as she attempts to uncover the truth. Of course, none of this crucial detective work could have happened without the selfless help of local taxi driver Zain (Ziad Bakri), a Syrian refugee. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Sarah Alderson, who was also responsible for the screenplay. 

Unfortunately, there is little reason to recommend this film. Its initial advertising blurb and trailers suggested that it was going to rival some of its predecessors of the same genre, namely, Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train – both highly successful mainstream films. However, The Weekend Away falls far short of these. 

Crucially, the plot is far from convincing. The film begins with the girls’ weekend away and its attendant cliches and fails to pull itself away from this. Beth is the mother, who desperately wants to be reunited with her baby back home; she is a reluctant participant in events. In contrast, Kate is the overindulged, spoiled brat and is far from endearing. Her past is unearthed as the film progresses and its relevance to her friendship with Beth is exposed. Indeed, are they really “best friends”? Is Beth really that naïve? We are fed the usual cliched scenes of extravagance on the night out: drugs, escorts, vomiting. It’s all so very familiar. Suspicion and menace are similarly and rather obviously created as a side line with the creepy janitor/musician who lurks suspiciously in the shadows and who is very clearly a parody of someone up to no good. And finally, we are led down the path of suspicion by a corrupt policeman.

As with all films of this genre, there have to be twists and turns to the plot, generally with an unpredicted big twist offered as a finale – one that none of us anticipated and generally catches us out. This is the point. However, one of the main problems with this film is that most of the twists and turns are largely predictable except, in all fairness, the final “shocker”. Unfortunately, in The Weekend Away, once the final twist has been delivered, it lacks plausibility. There are many questions left unanswered, which detracts from the intended outcome.   

On a more positive note, the setting for the film is beautiful. Croatia is filmed in all its resplendent glory. Terracotta tiles glimmer and the blue sea winks in the sunlight. The director uses a number of long shots of the town’s frontage to highlight its beauty and tranquillity. A tense, claustrophobic, atmosphere is created in the street chases through the narrow alleys, up steps and into dead ends so familiar with European coastal towns. It’s an unremarkable film, but certainly not an unpleasant way of spending a rainy afternoon.

Did you know? Leighton Meester played Curley’s wife in a Broadway stage production of Of Mice and Men in 2014.

The Weekend Away is available on Netflix