A comedian goes away for the weekend with her ex-boyfriend (Tone Bell as Bradford), and his new girlfriend (DeWanda Wise as Margo). If the plotline sounds like a rom-com, that’s because it is, but at least writer/director Stella Meghie’s tries to mix things up a little bit on The Weekend.
Starring SNL alumni Sasheer Zamata in the lead, the trio head out of the city to stay with Zadie’s mother’s B&B for a little country getaway. At first it seems like things are going OK, save for a couple of awkward moments between Zadie and Margo. They go for a walk, have a nice home cooked dinner, but when another guest arrives for the night (Y’lan Noel), the group is knocked off balance, and old feelings quickly come to the fore.
While this off-kilter romance boasts a pleasantly indie vibe, unfortunately the films takes everything a little too casually to be effective as a comedy. The pace is very plodding, meandering its way through only a handful of plot points, and while the relationship dynamics are interesting, we aren’t invested in the characters enough for it to really mean anything. Why did Zadie and Bradford break up? How long have he and new beau been together? Have there been any clashes between Zadie and Margo up to this point?
Perhaps the plot would have worked a lot better as a single episode inside a longer TV series, but for me it lacked the punch it needed to pull the heartstrings this way and that. Coupled with a very misplaced score and it creates a series of very strained scenes that do little to jump out of the screen.
The Weekend isn’t a disaster. It’s authentic, Sasheer Zamata is pret ty solid and it’s not _not entertaining_, but also I’m not intrigued enough for a second watch to find out if there’s a deeper meaning that’s drawn out when you jump back in.