The Weekend Away Review: An Enjoyable Yet Predictable Thriller

It has been a while since Leighton Meester has graced our screens with anything big, but in The Weekend Away, she is back for a delicious yet unoriginal twist-laden Croatian vacation thriller. 

Meester plays Beth, a new mom finally getting away for a girl’s trip with her friend from college, Kate, played by Christina Wolfe. 

We see Kate guilt Beth into staying out and partying to “relive [their] misspent youth.”

What ensues pretty much fits the typical trope of the fun friend pushing the quiet friend out of their shell to learn how to have a good time. The tropes are even on their faces with the makeup of the characters — Meester in little to no makeup and Wolfe in a full glam with a bright red lip.

Basically, we are starting off with character tropes that we are all familiar with.

How are these women friends? They seem to have nothing in common, but I guess that can happen when one friend goes off and has a kid while the other is going through their divorce mid-life crisis-esque phase. 

Kate’s pushiness may start out working, but it quickly devolves into Kate pushing Beth further and further past her boundaries, like telling her to sleep with the man flirting with her to get her groove back … even though Beth is married. It feels icky.

Again, it brings back the question — why are these women friends? It feels like a desperate attempt to hold onto youth and try to relive what once was. 

The club scene itself can come off as a tired way to establish character traits and add in some conflict to their relationship, but as Beth gets more information on the night, more sinister motivations come forward. The scene that felt normal at the beginning gets creepier as Beth recalled it throughout her searching process.

Going back as she learned more about that night keeps a good pace going and feels both like finding new pieces to a puzzle and also watching the puzzle get blurrier. Using Beth’s haze around the night, and her uncovering new possibilities of what happened feels like it gives the club scene extra layers as the story progresses.

All the questions that arise as you watch keep you hooked to find out what happened, while also shaking your head at Beth and asking if she is trying too hard for a crappy friend. 

Zain, played by Ziad Bakri, is a great addition to the movie. While he has odd lines that seem like the absolute wrong thing to say to someone trying to solve their friend’s disappearance (then subsequent murder), he adds tension and an easy way to help a meeker foreign character like Beth deal with the forces at play.  

Zain: You never wondered if it was me? 

The odd lines, in combination with him straight up telling Beth she is too trusting of people, definitely cause a raised eyebrow here and there. 

He helps her cross the language barrier, and also acts as the muscle when they confront the male escorts that were invited back to their hotel room. There is a whisper of possible romance in their future, which Beth deserves after all the betrayal she deals with in the film.  

Zain has an air of mystery to him and taking out the character would probably make the movie fall flat. Beth’s character seems to be mostly viewer insert, with not much to define herself on while away from her new baby.

One thing she should get credit for is determination. To try to solve a friend’s disappearance and murder without the police in a foreign country is a big ask, yet she does not back down no matter how many people dismiss her.

The last act’s discovery that it is Rob all along who killed Kate adds tension all the way through the final moment of the film. You think you are safe in the “happy ever after” epilogue of the trip but having the final twist is really satisfying.

The choice to make it Beth’s husband all along also makes the death feel more worth it. It isn’t just a case of a bad cop killing a tourist or a random act of violence but a crime of passion. 

Seeing Kate struggle in the water in the flashback as Rob walks away gives me chills. Men really have the audacity. Kate did not have many redeeming qualities to her though, so it’s not that heartbreaking of a death. It’s more appalling to see Rob walk away and let her drown. 

As the final girl in this movie, it still feels like Beth is the loser — getting betrayed by then losing her best friend and husband. Yet, do we need people in our lives that are ultimately just crappy people? She’s better off on her own with her baby. 

While it does not break the mold of a disappearance thriller in any way, The Weekend Away is an enjoyable 90-minute ride of tension and suspense set in beautiful Croatia. 

Stray Observations

• One thing that is a major sell of this movie is the gorgeous scenery. Croatia adds a beautiful, old-world backdrop to endless searching the city montages. 
• The landlord gets major creep points, which is obviously intentional, but it is frustrating that we never get the “explanation” he is yelling about when Beth confronts him. It honestly makes me afraid to stay in any Airbnb.
• Beth being arrested for Kate’s murder reminds me of the Amanda Knox story.
• Obviously, the husband and the best friend are cheating with one another. Obviously. 
• Leighton is a joy to see on the screen, and it may be the latent Gossip Girl stan in me, but I hope we get to continue to see more from her. 

What did you think of The Weekend Away? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Weekend Away is streaming now on Netflix. 

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