‘Blink Twice’ Review
Stars: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex | Written by Zoë Kravitz, E.T. Feigenbaum | Directed by Zoë Kravitz
Frida (Naomi Ackie) sees herself as a run-of-the-mill waitress come nail artist… at least, that’s her truth until she meets billionaire tech mogul Slate King (Channing Tatum). Before she knows it, she’s being invited on the vacation of her dreams on a remote island surrounded by the hottest of the hottest. Of course, this being a thriller, nothing is as it seems, soon leaving Frida fighting for her life.
It’s unlikely that the whole of Hollywood had a meeting to decide that 2024 was the year sexual violence storylines would be tackled on a whole new level… but let’s just say some are handling things much better than others. Blink Twice is so far the success story — not just presenting viewers with something authentically creative, but also remaining rightfully sensitive to the subject matter. It’s a directorial debut for Zoë Kravitz, but it doesn’t feel like it, and it’s her internal self-assuredness that takes the movie from potential dumpster fire territory into something much more solid and well-rounded.
Kravitz’s creative style is really what ties the seeds of Blink Twice together in a nice, unsettling bow. It goes without saying that having a woman be the driving force of a story that routinely confronts sexual trauma feels like a safe embrace, rather than oddly romanticising its subject matter (I’ll let you draw your own conclusions here). When your dad is as cool as Lenny is, a Kravitz was only ever going to be one way inclined, and Zoë’s reputation has already preceded her for years. Add in the fact that she’s romantically linked to one Channing Tatum and you get an end product that so naturally oozes passion and affection that you forget the bad aftertaste that’s about to follow. It all just feels right.
Of course, Naomi Ackie was always going to be brilliant in this leading role, but it’s Tatum’s first outing as a bonafide villain. This is the kind that lends well to him — he’s not having to reach too far out of his comfort zone to achieve something viewers want to invest in. Sure, that might not be an overly inspired choice, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it… and Tatum hits his marks incredibly well. So where does Blink Twice fall down, you ask? Its final moments. Kravitz and her company of actors spend so long committing to the right way to portray its story only to knock it all on the head with a final 60 seconds that sells itself out.
It’s as exasperating as all the many cases of unresolved violence we see play out in real life, and you leave the theater on a sour note. If you can block it out — or perhaps time a toilet trip to forgo the watching experience altogether — you’ll be all the better for it. Regardless, It Ends With Us should be very, very worried as this summer closes out with a jolt.
**** 4/5
Blink Twice is in cinemas now.
