Film Review: "Drop" (2025)

I appreciated so many aspects of this tight thriller that I'm disappointed that I was disappointed in the final product.

Widow Violet, who was in an abusive relationship with her late husband Blake (Michael Shea), decides to date after being a single mother to Toby (Jacob Robinson) for many years. Violet counsels abuse survivors, healing vicariously through them, and decides to take the next step herself and go out with too-good-to-be-true photographer Henry (Brandon Sklenar). Smart aleck sis Jen (Violett Beane) comes over to babysit, and Violet meets Henry at an impossibly beautiful restaurant that's located in a towering skyscraper.

The couple goes through the awkward first date motions as Violet begins receiving threatening AirDrops (labelled as something else) on her phone. I'm not gonna lie, I had to look up exactly what the heck these were, and I never thought of myself as technically inept. Someone in the restaurant wants Violet to kill Henry, or else a mysterious masked man now in her home will kill her sister and son. The game is on as Violet tries to figure out who in the restaurant is terrorizing her without telling Henry too much.

I read a few reviews where Fahy's performance was criticized, but I thought she did a fantastic job as the formerly abused Violet. During the more threatening, angry aspects of the mystery dropper's campaign of terror, Violet would remove herself from the situation- putting on a blank expression and pulling inward- and her performance was very effective. Sklenar as Henry is very good and they have a great chemistry, but this is Violet's story and we spend the most screen time with Fahy. The restaurant locale is a triumph of set decoration and design. Along with the fantastic cinematography, the restaurant, bar, cage-like entry tunnel, and even the bathroom are memorable and menacing. I also appreciated that director Landon or the screenwriters did NOT have Violet read her messages out loud to herself so the audience would know what was happening. The film makers made great use of text and images onscreen, reading what was being sent while watching Violet react to the messages as we were reading them. Violet is not former special forces/commando, so that was another plus.

Unfortunately, as with many films of this ilk, the filmmakers could not maintain the intensity of the opening act as things began to get more ridiculous. I started to question character motivations and scene placement- there's a strange man beating your sister and child at home, but we're going to pause to open up about our feelings to our new date? Are we going to circle around to the immediate danger later, after dessert and coffee? The final few minutes of the film are especially disappointing, losing me and my timeline belief suspension completely.

Landon's direction is certainly enthusiastic and interesting, and I was glad we didn't try to stretch this tight little story into a two and a half hour running time just because we could. I was hoping to get a lean-and-mean tone, but "Drop" will probably drop out of my memory as soon as I post this review.

Stats:
(2025) 95 min. (5/10)
-Directed by Christopher Landon
-Written by Jillian Jacobs & Chris Roach
-Cast: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan, Sarah McCormack, Jeffery Self, Ed Weeks, Ben Pelletier, Travis Nelson, Saoirse Hayden, Fiona Browne
-(US: PG-13)-(UK: 15)-(Au: MA15+)- Physical violence, gun violence, some gore, some profanity, adult situations, alcohol use
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming