By Keith Walther | Rose Law Group Reporter
Shameful is the first thing that comes to mind after enduring this absolute drudgery of a film. “Drop” is a mystery thriller built on a faulty premise that alienates any viewers with an ounce of common sense. A talentless performance from the lead actress makes for a truly excruciating filmgoing experience that should be outlawed as a means of torture.
It’s been years since widowed mother Violet (Meghann Fahy) has been on a date, but at the encouragement of her sister Jen (Violett Beane), she agrees to finally meet her online connection, Henry (Brandon Sklenar). They meet at a high-rise restaurant overlooking the city, a romantic setting for a first date, which quickly turns into a crazed nightmare just minutes into their greeting when Violet begins being peppered with alarming drops to her phone. At first distracted to the point that would have annoyed any guy, Violet becomes alarmed and then terrified when she learns her sister and son are in mortal danger after she sees an armed masked intruder has invaded her home.
Violet starts behaving erratically as the messages to her phone become increasingly aggressive, forcing her to follow the instructions in order to keep her son safe. As the bad guys’ intentions become clear, she gets painted into a corner, realizing her options are limited. Will she muster the nerve to kill her date like the anonymous dropper wants, or will she dissent, thus putting her family’s lives on the line?
By the time the audience gets to this fork in the road, they can care less what she decides, because the entire premise is ridiculous to begin with, ignoring basic logic simply to set up a modern theme involving a smart phone. Christopher Landon, the director of the “Happy Death Day” films, is responsible for this simpleminded suspense thriller. Why the mysterious antagonists go to the trouble of executing an overly elaborate plan of forcing a mom to kill her date while simultaneously holding her son hostage when they could have simply assassinated the man themselves is backwards thinking that relies on too many variables to be successful. Especially annoying is the fact that one of the antagonists is in the same restaurant with the couple in order to be able to send drops to her phone, so this whole plot is outlandishly silly. Even the development of the assassins’ motives is weak and poorly established.
Even if you can suspend reality and excuse the stupidity of the set-up, Landon further ignores the intelligence of his audience by incorporating scene after scene of poor judgment and decision-making. For instance, any normal human being on a first date would have fled the situation upon seeing their date behaving manically within the first several minutes of meeting. However, the guy sticks it out upon receiving a suddenly romantic kiss from his date. Her constant movement around the restaurant and erratic conduct disrupting other patrons should have also been enough to force the wait staff to have her removed, but everyone seems to have the patience of a saint, letting her run amuck around the tables like an escaped psychiatric patient.
Visually, Landon scores half a point for creative and fluid cinematography to try enhancing the level of suspense. However, these efforts are undermined by the implausibility and predictability of the scenes with lame and obvious misdirection attempts. Ultimately and inevitably, this culminates in a circus-like climax that leaves viewers shaking their heads.
If there’s anything in this movie worse than the direction and writing, it is the performance from the lead actress, Meghann Fahy. Her complete inability to believably deliver her lines makes her execution downright laughable, and not in a good way. The terrified reactions and startled gasps she exhibits are so unintentionally funny that they are meme worthy. Her romantic connection with her co-star is equally unconvincing, making her performance unsuitable for even a daytime soap opera.
The supporting cast wasn’t much better, but Brandon Sklenar delivers his poorly written lines a bit more naturally at least. Although, the lack of depth he provides his character with is discouraging. After the success of last year’s “It Ends with Us,” which had plenty of off-screen drama, Sklenar drops the ball with this lukewarm performance.
The fact that this project was greenlit to begin with, let alone receive a major distribution deal, is infuriating, but not surprising considering it’s just the latest debacle in a long string of failures from Blumhouse. “Drop” would be better titled “Droppings,” because that is what it most closely resembles. This is a clear contender for the worst movie of the year, and literally anything else in the theater is a better option than this.
This movie earns:
