The Weekend Away

Cookie-cutter is a bit of a mean term to throw around when writing a review, but it just seems so appropriate for The Weekend Away – a thriller with more borrowed elements than a library. 

Taking place in the wonderfully scenic city of Split, Croatia, the feature tells the story of Beth who, after coming to visit her more outgoing friend Kate for a weekend of reconnection, has to play detective after her host disappears. On the way she has to deal with deception as she unravels the mystery and probably eventually some whiplash from all the twists and turns. 

It’s a plot that’s been seen before and probably will be seen again: take a naive American tourist and put them in a hostile city, let the plot propel them forward and make sure that the police are as unhelpful as humanly possible. For viewers looking for originality, this won’t be their cup of tea. The same can also be said of the dialogue, which ranges from okay to eye-rolling in parts. This is is particularly true of the scenes where the audience is explicitly told of the characters’ relationships to one another, or when someone who clearly knows more than they do won’t let on – all done with a wink and a nudge. 

Leighton Meester, who plays Beth, is probably the strongest element of the film and, while she is rarely given anything substantive to perform with, she brings her all. The Gossip Girl star is perfectly believable and even manages to give the thin character a sense of relatability. There is also an interesting backstory with a local Syrian refugee called Zain, who is accused of having ties to crime groups, although it is later revealed that it is simply because some criminal elements helped in his flight. This aspect is handled surprisingly well for a film so concerned with its next twist that it barely has time to let its plot breathe. 

It is those twists and turns that made The Weekend Away a real drag, although for a straight-to-streamer popcorn flick such as this, they are to be expected. It’s a fantastic option for Saturday evening, turn-your-brain-off enjoyment, but give it any real thought and it becomes something of a carbon copy. 

Joe Milo

The Weekend Away is released on Netflix on 3^rd March 2022.

Watch the trailer for The Weekend Away here: