Leighton Meester wowed TV fans with her portrayal of damaged rich girl Blair Waldorf for six seasons of Gossip Girl. Since then, the actor has starred in some interesting projects, from quirky sitcom Single Parents to the movies The Oranges (2011) and Life Partners (2014). Meester currently plays Meredith on How I Met Your Father.

Recently, Meester also starred in the Netflix thriller The Weekend Away as Beth, a woman who goes from London to Croatia to spend a few days with her wild best friend Kate (Christina Wolf). While the movie's premise is interesting, as Kate disappears and Beth has to learn the truth, The Weekend Away misses the mark in many ways.

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Leighton Meester starred in the bad horror movie The Roommate and The Weekend Away has some moments that are as cheesy as that film is. Sarah Alderson wrote the movie's script, which is based on her novel that was published in 2020, and the movie starts out fairly strong. Beth's character is established, with audiences learning that she is a new mom and hasn't gone anywhere since having her baby girl. Beth is married to Rob (Luke Norris) and it doesn't seem like they are very happy together and maybe they never were. Beth's best friend Kate convinced her to go away for the weekend and rented an incredible, beautiful and glam apartment where they can look out over the city and drink a lot.

Kate (Christina Wolfe) and Beth (Leighton Meester) clinking glasses in The Weekend Away

But while there is some character development and fans can tell that Beth and Kate are total opposites, which often works well in telling these types of friendship stories, the movie veers off course when they go drinking in a club. Kate wants to hang out with some sketchy men and Beth wakes up totally hungover the next day with no idea where Kate is. When Beth asks a kind cab driver Zain (Ziad Bakri) to help her find Kate, they see the same men from the night before at a cafe. A ridiculous and silly chase scene follows, which is much funnier than it's supposed to be. The Weekend Away isn't an action movie and so this moment feels wrong and out of place.

The Weekend Away has a messy middle, and the story quickly becomes boring. As Beth digs into the mystery, there are obvious red herrings, like saying that Zain is actually bad guy and Beth should avoid him. This feels problematic as he's clearly a kind and gentle person who doesn't deserve that treatment. As tends to happen with stories where the best friend character is larger than life, wild, and a big fan of partying and adventure and fun, focusing on Beth doesn't do that much for the movie. While Kate can't be given more screen time since she disappears (and Beth learns that she has been murdered), maybe some well-done flashbacks could give audiences more chances to learn more about Kate and also see an exciting character onscreen more often.

Rob (Luke Norris) and Beth (Leighton Meester) in The Weekend Away

The movie also suffers from a thriller genre cliche: the husband is the one who did it. And there's another trope here, too: a husband and best friend having an affair. Beth is shocked and devastated to learn that Rob and Kate slept together and Rob was interested in continuing their affair. When Kate wanted to stop it, Rob ended up killing her. The scene when Beth confronts Rob is just as ridiculous as the chase scene. Rob acts like an evil villain, admitting to the crime and luging toward Beth, acting like he's going to murder her, too.

There are many horror and thriller movies and novels where the husband is the one who committed murder, making it kind of boring that this is what happens here, too. Maybe if Rob was a more compelling character, this dull feeling could be avoided, but he doesn't have much personality and so it's hard for audiences to be amazed, surprised, or interested in learning about Rob's crime.

It's interesting to see Beth as a new mom who hasn't been going out and doing the things that she used to do or spending a ton of time with her best friend, as this is a huge life adjustment. If the movie would focus on this more, it would have more depth, but this is glossed over as well.

If a thriller is going to focus on the friendship between two main characters and then investigate who murdered one of them, it definitely needs to actually say more about that relationship, and The Weekend Away gives a brief, vague, and surface level description of Beth and Kate's bond. Audiences will want more, and while the setting is pretty, that's not enough to keep people interested and wanting to keep watching.

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