LEIGHTON MEESTER gained stardom in the teen drama “Gossip Girl” in 2007 where she played a scheming rich girl. It ran for several seasons.
She then made some movies and was last seen in the sitcom “Single Parents” in 2018.
Now 35 years old, she’s back in a new movie, “The Weekend Away”, which was filmed on location in Croatia using a lot of Croatian actors.
The story starts with her as Beth arriving in Croatia for a weekend vacation with her best gal pal, Kate (Christina Wolfe), who was her college roommate.
She is now married and just left her baby with her husband Rob (Luke Norris) in London where they are based.
Kate herself has just divorced her rich husband, Jay (Parth Thakerar), and she’s now using his credit card to splurge.
A local taxi driver, Zain (Ziad Bakri) takes Beth to the luxurious apartment rentals where Kate is staying. He’s very friendly and leaves her his card.
Beth confesses to Kate that her relationship with her husband Rob has reached a rough patch and the sassy Kate tells her to just forget her problem so they can have a good time while they’re together.
They have dinner then Kate takes her to a bar where Kate makes advances to two handsome guys, telling Beth they should have an exciting one-night stand.
She is reluctant about it but the following morning, Beth wakes up with no memory at all of what happened the previous night.
Kate is not around and she thinks she just left for a while and would soon come back, but she doesn’t.
Her absence worries her so she contacts her husband and also Kate’s ex-husband, Jay, but they tell her not to worry as Kate can be just wild and playful at times.
She reports it to the local cops but they don’t seem to be helpful. She then contacts Zain as he drove them to the club.
He helps and they go back to the club, where Beth learns that the two men they met were actually paid escorts previously hired by Kate.
Then Kate’s dead body is found. As they say, the plot thickens.
That’s all about we’re going to share with you as you might want to check out the movie and anything else would be a spoiler as the plotting has so many twists and turns.
Aside from the plentiful narrative complications, there are so many suspects, including a wayward cop, the geeky apartment landlord, local human traffickers and even Beth herself and the helpful Zain become suspects at one point.
And just when you think the case has been solved, there’s another total surprise near the end that we ourselves didn’t see coming.
The film’s script is written by Sarah Alderson who based it on her own novel. It’s a frothy thriller that may be quite forgettable but it’s quite amusing as you watch it.
The location, for one, is a novelty: Croatia, a coastal country in the Adriatic Sea in the Balkans which was once part of Yugoslavia until they declared their independence.
This film is the type where you have to willingly suspend your disbelief to be able to enjoy its excessive contrivances. Otherwise, if you have too many questions, you will surely question its credility.
But it’s all swiftly paced at an hour and a half and it’s serviceable enough to provide a decent night of disposable home entertainment that’s diverting enough to while your time away.
The film is directed by Kim Farrant whose last film, “Angel of Mine”, starred Noomi Rapace as a mom who thought her baby has died in a hospital fire but later finds a girl who she suspects is really her child.
Leighton Meester as the main protagonist is the only character in the movie that we know is not guilty of something or other.
She gives quite a solid and decent performance in the lead role and she succeeds in getting our sympathy and makes us root for her.
