Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 43 minutes, Director – Zoë Kravitz
Cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) is invited to the private island of tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), however the longer she spends there the more she questions what she remembers of each day.
The revelations of Blink Twice happen in quick succession. Once the first is unveiled the rest follow for various characters in consistent flow, largely combining to the core of the film’s central point. While the trailers may feel as if they point towards some of this, it’s safe to say here that everything on the private island of tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) is not as it seems.
Cocktail waitresses Frida (Naomi Ackie) and Jess (Alia Shawkat) sneak into a celebration being held by King’s company and find themselves invited to the island for the duration of his latest trip. With everyone’s phones shut away in a bag held by Slater’s assistant, Stacy (Geena Davis – who it feels like the film wants to do more with but is largely seen fumbling with handfuls of bags and assuring Slater that his new chair is fine in its latest location), days are spent drinking and partying around the pool before a gourmet meal prepared by Simon Rex’s Cody. However, as time passes as Frida explores more hidden areas of the island she begins to feel as if there’s something being hidden from her, or perhaps she’s forgetting something. The indeterminate amount of time spent on the island mixed with the repetition of the days brings about a sinister Groundhog Day feeling.
Co-writer (alongside E.T. Feigenbaum) and debut director Zoë Kravitz goes full force with a fiery third act fuelled by the increasing heat of the discoveries and pieced-together events across the narrative. For the most part the timing and intrigue of these closing stages is handled well, however when it comes to rounding things off the film is brought to a quick conclusion while still feeling as if it has one or two pieces it could still run with. Perhaps due to how quick the final stages feel in comparison to the looping style of the initial partying and enjoyment of the island, where the focus is very much still on Ackie and Shawkat’s characters, before also introducing Adria Arjona’s reality survival series star Sarah.
These three figures have the core detail when it comes to characters. While Tatum’s tech mogul, claiming to invest himself in therapy after the way he ran his company was met with online criticism leading to an apology video on Instagram, has his own detail everyone else around him – including the likes of Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment and Kyle MacLachlan – feel somewhat one-dimensional; perhaps intentionally so to push the film’s themes, or maybe an effect from the fact that they, too, don’t have a great deal to do.
The mysteries unfold effectively throughout as things are pieced together well. Gradually at first but then in a sudden rush in the catharsis, tension and fire of the third act. There may be some bumps during Blink Twice, but as a whole it works well particularly when it comes to the timing of how events unfold and the mystery unravels, and a consistent sense of threat alongside it. More time could be given to how things are rounded off, but with the pace and force given to the third act, it certainly has a thrilling impact in the moment.
While certain characters and the overall resolution could do with more time and detail, Blink Twice is a film made with fiery force, contained in the growing sinister mystery which unfurls in a thrilling, consistent flow as the closing stages near.
Just A Little Bit Random 