3/3/2022 – TV-14 – 1h 29m – Netflix

Alan: ⭐⭐✩✩✩

Michelle: ⭐⭐✩✩✩

Beth is a married woman living in London with her husband and ten month old daughter. Her life is in a bit of a rut. Kate, Beth’s best friend from college, invites her to a weekend in Croatia. 

Kate goes missing after a night out. Beth, instead of returning home to her nursing baby, extends her stay in Croatia to solve the mystery of Kate’s disappearance, and she becomes a suspect and has to clear her name before she is allowed to return home to her family.

Alan: The shots of Croatia are gorgeous. The production quality is high. It is well shot. It is well edited. The actors do a fine job. I didn’t care for the main protagonist. Beth has a one year old baby at home. When Kate, her best friend who does not seem to have a history of treating her well, goes missing, she extends her stay in a foreign country to look for her. I was yelling, “GO HOME TO YOUR FAMILY!” the entire movie. Maybe I’ve just seen too many movies about people being imprisoned in foreign countries for crimes they didn’t commit. 

Michelle: Yes! Amanda Knox came to mind when Beth stayed in a foreign country to investigate a possible crime. After the police tell her they don’t consider a person missing for 24 hours, get out and call the police for updates from home. Plus, Beth has a nursing baby at home. A better motivation for Beth staying to find her friend who the police think is going to turn up later after a wild night out would help the movie seem less ridiculous.

Alan: Beth whined her way through her unofficial investigation. When she was unable to make progress, the handsome taxi driver stepped in and muscled his way through her obstacles. Several times, clues and evidence appeared as if by magic. This isn’t a mystery with clues laid out that you can see in retrospect. Beth rarely surmounts her obstacles herself. Someone else does it for her or fate just presents what she needs.

Michelle: Beth stumbles through the soap opera dramas created by random decisions with no logical motivations and then resolves problems with solutions falling into her lap without foreshadowing just in time for the next plot twist to add new drama. Sometimes this kind of soapy, light drama is fun to watch when you want entertainment without straining the grey matter even a little bit.

Alan: The themes and character arcs are muddy. The handsome taxi driver accuses her of trusting too easily. He also says “trust your heart”. Nearly everyone Beth encounters in the movie is lying about something important. It seemed to be an important theme that had no resolution. At the end of the movie, Beth states verbally the lesson she has learned from this experience, but I didn’t see much action supporting that claim.

Michelle: Yes, wishy-washy, flip-floppy, unreliable characters and plot motivations make this movie not worth watching closely. Watch it with a glass of wine while doing something else like cooking. Doesn’t really matter if you miss parts while flipping the wash into the dryer because the next twist will pop up and get resolved anyways. 

Alan: There were a couple of good twists in the movie. There were also many twists that came out of nowhere and felt a little contrived. Beth makes a lot of bad decisions and we spent a lot of the movie yelling at the screen for her to do something different: “Use your cell phone camera to record the evidence!” Although one of the twists involved her doing something we thought was stupid, but turned out to be rather cunning.

Michelle: Check out the placement of Leighton Meester’s ear piercing on the movie poster; one reason to watch The Weekend Away is for fashion tips and vacation inspiration.

Alan: I gave the movie two stars out of five. The shots of Croatia were gorgeous. It is worth checking those out. The story lacked a clear theme and had muddy character arcs. I found it to be unsatisfying.

Michelle: Two stars out of five. Weak mystery with insipid characters set in an interesting locale.