Movie: Drop

Drop is one of those movies that’s challenging to discuss without giving away the punchline.

And discovering the who and why behind the movie’s plot is one of the joys of Drop.

Drop centres on Violet (Meghann Fahy), a widowed mother, who arrives at a trendy high end Chicago restaurant for a first date with photographer Henry (Brandon Sklenar).

Although the two have been chatting on line for a few months this is their first face to face meeting.

Violet, a domestic violence psychologist, hasn’t been on a date for years as a result of surviving horrific domestic abuse at the hands of her former husband.

However, at the insistence of her sister Jen (Violette Beane), who has agreed to babysit her young son Toby (Jacob Robinson), Violet heads out rather nervously.

Her apprehensiveness continues as Henry is late. Deciding to wait for him at the bar, Violet comes in contact with several characters including Cara (Gabrielle Ryan) the bartender, Richard (Reed Diamond) an older man waiting to meet his blind date, Phil (Ed Weeks) an over confident piano player and Connor (Travis Nelson) a patron who bumps into Violet when she enters the restaurant.

The arrival of Henry sees both act rather nervously but just as they relax Violet starts getting internet memes sent as drops (what iPhones call AirDrop and Androids refer to as Quick Share).

These become more bizarre and pretty soon it’s clear her every move is being monitored.

More frightening is the instructions she receives on her phone which start with destroying the sim card in Henry’s camera (which he has brought to the restaurant). After she does this she is then ordered to kill him.

If she doesn’t obey Jen and Toby will be killed. Given the video footage on her phone showing the killer is already in Violet’s house and the subsequent murder of someone she asks for help within the restaurant, she quickly realises the person sending the drops is a cold-blooded killer.

She knows the killer must be in the restaurant (for a range of around 50 feet is needed for a drop to work). But who is it and why her?

To give anything more away would ruin the movie but needless to say Violet is no ‘shrinking Violet’ once she gets over the shock of what’s happening to her.

While some of the movie is rather is implausible especially the concluding action scenes, according to the movie’s producer, Cameron Fuller, it’s based on a real-life experience.

Fuller was on vacation overseas with family when they fell victim to a wave of unrecognised drops.

“We’re at a beautiful dinner and we start receiving drops from someone in the restaurant,” Fuller explains.

“Over the course of the meal, they are getting progressively scarier. By the end, we thought we had figured out who it was, but we were never able to confirm it. That was the scariest part. We never knew who the sender of these drops was. And then we said, ‘maybe this should be a movie.’”

While there are some holes in Drop’s storyline and a few disturbing scenes involving domestic violence, the movie is entertaining and works thanks in part to the performances of its leads.

Fahy is totally believable as a woman who has survived unspeakable horrors but is determined to rebuild her life.  While not required to do as much of the heavy lifting, Sklenar also gives a credible performance.

Jeffery Self’s excellent performance as oversharing, eager-to-please waiter Matt provides the highpoint of the movie’s rare comic moments and an escape from the movie’s claustrophobic feel as most of the action occurs within the restaurant.

With it’s Hitchcockian feel Drop provides plenty of moments of tension and suspense, a feeling that’s aided by the film’s relatively short running time of 90 minutes.

Drop opens in cinemas on April 17

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