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So, this was a weird one. Blink Twice just popped up on Amazon so I thought I would give it a watch. I didn’t know much about it, but I like Channing Tatum so how bad can it be? There will be spoilers, but I will warn you.
Blink Twice stars Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Liz Caribel, Geena Davis and Kyle MacLachlan. Zoe Kravitz writes and directors, with E. T. Heigenbaum as another writer.
The Story
The blurb for Blink Twice says:
When tech billionaire Slater King meets cocktail waitress Frida at his fundraising gala, he invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. As strange things start to happen, Frida questions her reality.
Interesting, right? Frida (Ackie) is down on her luck and a nobody. She ends up crashing a party for billionaire Slater King (Tatum) and ends up on his private island. On the island, with a group of others, it’s one big party of drugs, alcohol and the playboy lifestyle.
Everything is fun and games until Jess (Shawkat) seems to disappear, and no one seems to remember her. With the help of a maid on the island, she ends up drinking snake poison (don’t ask) and then remembers exactly what went on.
*Spoilers*
It turns out the island is similar to that real-life island that belonged to that one guy who definitely did hang himself in prison. Definitely. People are taken there, drugged, and raped, and then drugged again to make them forget. The next day everyone is back to the fun and games again.
This was an interesting concept, but it’s really let down near the end. Firstly, as far as I understand, if someone is bound, probably beaten and then raped, there’s going to be some kind of physical evidence the next day. Not here there isn’t.
Some of the rapes are shown and they are pretty brutal. The victims would have been barely able to walk the next day, let alone sit down, but they continue as if nothing had happened. This threw all the continuity out of the window for me.
Secondly, the entire third act is a farce! Two of the women manage to drug the others to so they don’t forget. The irony of someone who’s being drugged then drugging someone else, against their will, is lost here.
When all the women remember, they all suddenly turn badass and manage to fight back and kill some of the attackers. One of the women does a roundhouse kick to dispatch one of the men into a pool that is pretty laughable.
The Ending *More Spoilers*
In the end, Frida gets the upper hand and then takes over Slater’s business, by slipping him the same drug and controlling him. On the one hand, women’s lib, they take over and get the respect they deserve.
On the other hand, she’s now just become as bad as the “white man”. Again, the irony is lost in the writing and the telling.
Are You Going To Go My Way?
Kravitz is an activist and Blink Twice shows it. With better writing the movie could have been much better handled and even made the viewer think more about something like this.
The writing in the third act just seems to give up and make it more of an action movie, with women kicking ass and taking names. After most of the events, the survivors of the ordeal makes a joke about a cigarette lighter and laugh about it.
On the one hand, I understand the release of what has just happened. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but think that they are suddenly “Let’s have a good laugh after all the rape and abuse”. Some people will choose to see the end as highlighting just how brave and stunning women are.
With better understanding and more thought, it could have been a much better movie with a provocative, emotional ending. Instead, the end had me laughing in places and rolling my eyes in others. It’s a tonally weird movie.
Overall
Blink Twice could have been something truly thought-provoking and deep. Instead, it turns the main women into girl bosses and shows us all how horrible men are. Obviously. It’s also funny how if a man treats a woman a certain way, it’s bad. If a woman treats the man the same way, it’s good.
I’m disappointed in the cast, to be honest. I imagine men and women will see this movie very differently. I’m a man, so I’m in the wrong though.
Blink Twice is streaming on Amazon. It’s not a movie I would return to.
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