Trigger Warning: Rape/Sexual Assault
Blink Twice follows Frida, a cocktail waitress who is invited to vacation at billionaire Slater King’s island with her friend. On the island, Frida realizes that things aren’t what they seem.
This film is a promising directorial debut from Zoe Kravitz, who creates an unsettling atmosphere and builds tension with tight close-ups and flickering images. She effortlessly bringing out feelings of discomfort and anxiety.
Bold, vivid colours also contribute to the film’s unnerving nature. Frida meets Slater at a fundraising gala in a large, minimalistic white hall, evoking a sense of lifelessness and emptiness early on. Blood red pervades the island, signaling danger and violence. Dark blue moonlight establishes a nighttime eeriness.
Blink Twice is visually stunning. From lush green trees to bright blues and yellows, the colour palette is a feast for the eyes. Zoe Kravitz has vision and style but it’s unfortunately undermined by a poorly paced and thematically muddled script. The story is solid and consists of interesting ideas; it’s just too bad they’re not thoroughly or coherently explored.
After the characters arrive on the island, they endlessly party and drink to the point where it’s repetitive. Then Frida starts to have memory gaps. A knife falls from behind her mirror. She has dirt under her nails. But she can’t recall how either thing got there. She’s also repeatedly called ‘red rabbit’ by a worker.
Small hints are dropped but overall, very little plot development is made. We also don’t learn anything about the characters and their backstories apart from Frida, Slater, and Sarah. They’re essentially cardboard cutouts, so the following events aren’t very impactful.
The big twist of Blink Twice is that the women on the island are gang raped every night. Their memory is wiped with a perfume made from the island’s flowers. The sexual assault scenes are horrific. The women are bound and gagged, and crying and screaming as the men abuse them.
I don’t have an issue with graphic imagery but it has to be justified. Beyond the (very obvious) fact that sexual assault is bad, the film has nothing substantial to say.
There’s an opportunity to delve into the system that benefits men like Slater and how cancel culture is meaningless but the film doesn’t take it. Same goes for what it means to be sexually assaulted. What it means to be traumatized. What it means for Frida, a working black woman, to come to a White man’s island. There’s zero interest in adding to the conversation or provoking thought.
This is why the ending didn’t work either. Frida reveals that Slater, her rapist, is now her husband; she’s CEO of his tech company and he’s under her control. I can understand how Frida and Slater’s role reversal could be a form of justice, but it reads as a superficial girl-boss moment to me.
What exactly is being conveyed with this ending? Is it about vengeance? Is it a commentary about the cycle of abuse? Is it about survival or power? Is it playing the system? All of the above? I don’t know. The film doesn’t know either.
Not every movie has to be profound or have a message per se but I think it’s irresponsible for a film using sexual assault as its big twist not to dig deeper. Otherwise, the depiction of sexual assault is for shock value only.
The last thing I want to note is Naomi Ackie’s incredible performance and Adria Arjona’s indelible line deliveries. That fat blunt scene is gold. I don’t think this film works without them. They elevated weak material.
Great review!