{"id":31016,"date":"2025-04-10T14:35:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T21:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=31016"},"modified":"2025-04-10T14:35:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T21:35:26","slug":"drop-is-too-silly-to-generate-real-thrills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=31016","title":{"rendered":"DROP is Too Silly to Generate Real Thrills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Running Time: 100 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature from Universal Pictures opens exclusively at\ntheaters on April 11th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve seen my share of thrillers, plenty of them pulpy and\nover-the-top. While many strain credibility at certain points, a witty\nscreenplay or charismatic turn can allow viewers to give a film a pass for its\nminor transgressions. \u201cDrop\u201d <\/em>is a new suspense picture that uses cell\nphone messaging to generate mystery and suspense. Unfortunately, its problem is\nthat the story is so preposterous that it all becomes difficult to take\nseriously. Yes, you may end up chuckling here and there at what you see, but\nthere is no genuine excitement to be experienced.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Violet (Meghann Fahy) is a widow, domestic abuse survivor\nand single mom who works as a therapist for other victims. After years focusing\non her son Toby (Jacob Robinson), she finally agrees to leave her house and go\non a date with a photographer Henry (Brandon Sklenar), whom she has never met\nin person. Toby is placed in the care of sister Jen (Violett Beane) as Violet\ntravels to a nearby restaurant at the top of a downtown Chicago skyscraper.\nAnxiety arises when she begins receiving unsettling messages on her phone.\nThinking it must be a prank, Henry tries to help her identify the sender,\nnarrowing it down to someone in the restaurant. But things become much more\nserious when the texter sends Violet footage of an intruder in her home and\ntells her that if she does not follow instructions and murder Henry, her son\n(and presumably, sister) will be slain instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is some potential in the concept and the enclosed\nsetting of a restaurant. The movie attempts to interject a bit of humor early\non as the main characters awkwardly meet and then deal with an exaggerated\nwaiter who is overly excited about serving them on his very first shift. The\nleads are likable enough and the backstory of Violet enduring a horrific\nrelationship and trying to move forward certainly does help get viewers into\nher corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alas, the movie expects one to accept an increasingly\npreposterous set of circumstances. In fact, everything about the restaurant and\nits customers feels somewhat simulated even before the danger begins. When the\nevil figure begins constantly texting the lead, giving elaborate instructions\nand Violet\u2019s panicked gaze darts around the room, she is forced to make clumsy\nexcuses and follow orders without giving herself away to Henry. At the same\ntime, she\u2019s also trying to find someone to help her out. This plays out in\nscene after scene and as characters get into altercations, and even collapse,\nand it is so artificial and broadly delivered that it is difficult to\nbelieve.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The screenplay also tries to insert plenty of red herrings\ninto the story. Violet\u2019s tormentor makes a strange accusation about her past,\nwhich gets a strong reaction. So much so, that it\u2019s bizarre the movie doesn\u2019t\nreally go anywhere with the idea. As Violet eventually grows bolder, she ends\nup more or less walking over to several suspects and accusing them of being the\nculprit. By the time she finally needles the correct person and learns exactly\nwhat is occurring and why, there are many more logistical questions that will\nimmediately leap to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the climax arrives, the characters give overly\nheartfelt admissions to each other, which come across as ill-timed given what\u2019s\noccurring. The action and associated ridiculousness jump to new heights at this\npoint as Violet\u2019s family is put in imminent danger. One thing that is certain\nis that, given what follows during the finale, therapy for at least one\ncharacter will be a permanent requirement. If that weren\u2019t enough, there\u2019s even\na tonally bizarre conversation with jokes towards the close that is surreal\ngiven the horrors that have just been experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some may contend that the film\u2019s strange gags are intended\nto poke fun at genre tropes, but I\u2019m not convinced that this is the case,\nparticularly during the dramatic declarations. While allowing an abuse survivor\nto stand tall and fight off a nasty tormentor is a fine idea and the leads do\ntheir best to keep one engaged in their fear (and\/or general confusion), the\nstory is littered with plot holes and nothing feels grounded in any kind of\nreality. The drama in Drop<\/em> nosedives into absurdity and the end result\nfails to exhilarate.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 100 minutes This feature from Universal Pictures opens exclusively at theaters on April 11th. I\u2019ve seen my share of thrillers, plenty of them pulpy and over-the-top. While many strain credibility at certain points, a witty screenplay or charismatic turn can allow viewers to give a film a pass for its minor transgressions. \u201cDrop\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":31017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[216,3426,6309,6312,6313,6314,8172,12915,22825,23571],"class_list":["post-31016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-216","tag-brandon-sklenar","tag-drop","tag-drop-film-review","tag-drop-movie-review","tag-drop-review","tag-genre","tag-maghann-fahy","tag-thriller","tag-universal-pictures"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}