Film Review - Blink Twice
Images courtesy of Warner Bros.
Zoë Kravitz shows potential in her impressive looking directorial debut Blink Twice but her ambitions are unfortunately frustrated by a weak script and poor pacing. Naomi Ackie stars as Frida, a waitress para-socially obsessed with billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) who, after a Cinderella encounter at a gala, whisks her away to his private island. What follows is a variant on a Bluebeard story, a particularly gothic fairytale where a naif finds themselves married to a rich and powerful man with dark desires and a history of gendered violence.
The film looks fantastic; vibrant colours, shallow depth of field, and excellent clear lighting all serve to compliment the cast’s wide range of skin tones. It feels rare to get a film this colourful which doesn’t come off as cartoony. The combination of shallow depth of field and bright colours give the film a suitably hazy look which well suits its cautionary fairytale — ‘don’t visit the-hot-billionaire-who-you-just-met’s private island’.
Unfortunately though, Blink Twice falls into the category of twist-first storytelling. That there is a twist is of course expected, and that the billionaire is no prince charming is not surprising. The issue isn’t in the predictability of the twist, which is nicely foreshadowed, but in the relative dullness of the movie preceding its inevitable violent finale. There’s a few good laughs in there, the acting is as excellent as the cast suggests, yet the film lacks substance.
The gothic tradition uncertainty of reality which Frida experiences, vis-a-vis alcohol and drug fuelled bacchanalia, gives way to an overly simplified resolution. Whatever psychological horror has been building is summarily ruined by a reveal that shows far too much, a neat diegetic explanation behind every break with reality. Spoilers ahead — the film ends with Frida an empowered billionaire, Slater King emasculated, and most of the characters dead and discarded. As a result, rather than finding solidarity in the mutual abuses her and the other women on the island endured, they seem almost stepping stones on her path to success, a triumphant character beat which is deeply incurious about the structure of power. As far as post-#metoo, post-Epstein island, post-Depp/Heard films go, it's just okay. It’s grappling with some big serious ideas around power, abuse, and cultural norms around drugs and alcohol as mechanisms of control, but the ending is too reconciled to really feel impactful.
Kravitz has teamed up with co-writer E.T. Feigenbaum once before for episode 5 of Hulu’s High Fidelity ‘Uptown’. The series was an excellent vehicle for Kravitz’s acting chops and ‘Uptown’ was one of the better episodes of the show. Clearly Feigenbaum and Kravitz are capable of more than what they delivered here. This film is a functional enough directorial start for Kravitz, but Blink Twice could have used a little more time in the oven.
Blink Twice is screening in cinemas from Thursday the 22nd of August. For tickets and more info, click here.