It’s amazing how a likable lead can draw you into a movie but that’s exactly what Naomi Ackie does for “Blink Twice,” the psychological thriller/directorial debut of actress Zoe Kravitz. Not that “Blink Twice” needs Ackie’s help. However, with a third act that thrills more as satire than straight horror, it’s nice to have Ackie as your film’s anchor.
“Blink Twice” begins by meting Frida (Ackie), a girl whose career ambitions float around painting animals on fingernails under the appealing (appalling) name ‘anailmals’ while earning real money as catering wait staff with her roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat). While working a gala fundraiser hosted by billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), the King-infatuated Frida and Jess put on ball gowns to crash the party. When Frida’s high heel snaps off, the tumble turns into a ‘meet-cute’ when King helps Frida to her feet. Before King is called away while talking to Frida until party’s end, King impulsively invites Frida and Jess to leave with him and languish on King’s private island for a few days as his personal guests.
The girls do not refuse and are whisked by private jet to King’s remote island. They aren’t alone: among King’s other guests are seven men and women (including Christian Slater and Haley Joel Osment) who appear to be old friends. Upon arriving at King’s island estate, King’s assistant Stacy (Geena Davis) collects everyone’s cell phones. Jess looks apprehensive but King assures her she can do whatever she wants. To not appear rude or radically different, Jess gives Stacy her phone- why would she need her cell phone anyway?
Naturally, Frida and Jess find they’ll need their cell phones to try to contact the outside world when strange things begin happening. Despite being pampered and having their clothes laid out for them in advance, Frida and Jess find they’re being dressed identically to the other women guests and this strikes them as odd. While King gives his guests a lavish dinner at day’s end, drugs become the dessert of choice and Frida and Jess have a hard time remembering what happened when they awaken the next day. Of course, the strangest lost memory comes when Frida cannot find Jess on the island and no one else can remember ever meeting Jess.
Frida’s search for Jess and uncovering the reason for her disappearance as well as the more disturbing denial from the other guests of Jess even existing is what draws you into “Blink Twice.” With Ackie as Frida, the audience’s investment in Frida’s interests aren’t wasted. From identifying with Frida’s giddy acceptance to being treated like a princess by her infatuation to finding the troubling truth behind strange situations and memory lapses masked by drugs, Ackie runs the emotional gambit in uncovering the unbelievable. Having only seen Ackie two years ago in “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” playing Houston herself, she’s two-for-two in the making-me-believe department.
When all is revealed, “Blink Twice” comes off as a mix of 2022’s “The Menu” (where chef Ralph Fiennes cooks up a lavish dinner on a remote island with an ulterior motive that gives his guests a bad aftertaste) and 1975’s “The Stepford Wives” (where the battle-of-the-sexes can advance misogyny if likeminded men make the first move).
Despite a violent and vindictive denouement, “Blink Twice’s” script by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum has something to say about the relationships between men and women. At its best, it satirically documents our impulse to not pay heed to the damaging effects of hedonistic love. Our flaw is our choosing to forget the damage (with drugs or by burying our past traumas) and embrace the happiness we felt as misguided as it might have been.