1 week Ago By Ladyfingers
In the films of Alfred Hitchcock, the curse of the protagonist is often to know a terrible secret that he or she cannot reveal. In Drop , director Christopher Landon updates the Hitchcock formula using the modern curse of the smartphone. Widowed mother Violet ( Meghann Fahy ) is going on her first date since the death of her husband.
Her date, Henry ( Brandon Sklenar ), is a charming, handsome photographer who seems almost too good to be true. When Violet starts receiving anonymous message drops from someone in the restaurant, she’s suddenly forced to do the bidding of a stranger holding her child hostage, complete with a live video feed to keep her compliant. Drop is a little miracle of a film that tries spinning multiple plates and actually succeeds.
You are simultaneously invested in the outcome of sympathetic Violet’s date with dishy Henry, with the mystery of who in the restaurant is watching and messaging her, and you are trying to figure out how she can possibly get around the terrible demands placed on her by the crook. Using the simultaneous Hell of the modern surveillance panopticon and the inability to switch off one’s smartphone to escape it, Landon uses some admirable cinematic economy to keep you entertained. It’s nearly all shot in one location, you get to know a few members of the cast just enough to be suspicious of them, and at no point is there a spare moment to breathe.
This all works because you actually care about the characters, thanks to some genuine chemistry between Fahy and Sklenar. Both deliver natural, endearing performances. Fahy has the considerable challenge of playing a character that is trying to conceal her panic from a person she wants to impress, all while trying not to appear rude as she’s forced to look at her phone during a date, and she pulls it off expertly.
We all dread our phones interrupting our evenings with their miserable little hum. There are plenty of questions the frankly harebrained plot of Drop raises but with its rapid pace and light tone, you won’t care a bit. Landon has taken that irritation and turned it into a fun little thriller that feels like a return to a better class of entertainment.
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