Dating in today's world of social media is stressful enough, am I right? So imagine the stress of a first date combined with a covert murder plot being forced upon you! Where's the hope for romance in that premise?
In the PG-13 film, "Drop," actress Meghann Fahy (season 2 of "The White Lotus," 2022) plays an emotionally fragile single mom who finds herself in this premise of a fancy date and a secret murder (which has some actual promise in the first 15 minutes). When the leading lady arrives at a high-end high-rise restaurant, she explains to her date she has to keep her phone on their table to check on her five-year-old kid at home in case any emergencies happen. But guess what? The emergency happens to her!
When she starts getting text messages dropped to her phone from an unknown sender, she's forced to follow threatening instructions to kill her date with an unnamed poison and look natural while doing it. How can this overwhelmed woman keep her cool, kill her date, and discover who is sending her the blackmailing messages? This film takes place over one evening and is set mostly in a single location of a modern restaurant.
"Drop" is a psychological thriller many audiences have seen before in past examples like "Nick of Time" (1995) or "Red Eye" (2005). But that doesn't mean it's tired or annoying.
It is a visually attractive mystery but set in the world of current-day technology with direct messaging, fake profiles, and multiple streaming options for constant surveillance. Instead of showing the frightening messages on the woman's phone each time it buzzes, the text is displayed magnified on the big screen at differing angles. Sometimes the text surrounds the woman's head like an ominous giant, further highlighting her helpless mood. That helps keep the visual swagger entertaining. But any measure of the overall quality of "Drop" is irreversibly tiny.
Christopher Landon is the director of this one who also directed the two "Happy Death Day" films (2017 and 2019). Those films are silly, campy, horror comedies, so it makes sense that "Drop" has some awkward jokes peppered throughout. But every single one of these jokes is stupid and bland. And what's even worse, these moments of dull attempted comedy cut into the tension which most of this film spends time trying to build.
I kept thinking to myself, "Does this film want me to laugh? Or does it want me to move to the edge of my seat?" In an attempt to do both in its 95-minute run-time, "Drop" ends up being a juvenile, absurd experience I could not take seriously. Comedy can have its place in a thoughtful thriller, but it has to be written smoothly enough and naturally enough. "Drop's" screenplay cannot boast either of those adjectives.
At the final climax before the end, I rolled my eyes so hard they almost dislodged from their sockets. Some movie lovers might get some moments of fun out of this, but these moments do not make this thriller memorable for the right reasons.
