Warning: This article includes some spoilers.
Netflix's new film "The Weekend Away" may be a murder mystery. But at its core, it's also a story about female friendship.
And that's partly what appealed to its star, Leighton Meester.
Friendship "is the story," the "Gossip Girl" alum said in a recent interview over Zoom. "Without that relationship, it wouldn’t really make any sense."
The film, which was released Thursday, follows two friends, Beth (Meester) and Kate (Christina Wolfe), who meet up for a weekend getaway to Croatia that goes wrong.
Kate goes missing after a night out, during which Beth blacks out, and authorities discover later that she's been murdered. Beth then becomes the prime suspect.
“Beth and Kate care about each other,” Meester said. “They have a lot of history. No matter what, I think they truly do love each other, and I think, like, that was a very important relationship to make make sense for us.”
Before Kate’s death, the friends find themselves playing catch-up on each other’s lives. Beth has had a baby, and Kate has gone through a major breakup. Neither clearly have really been there for each other. When authorities grill Beth, they tell her witnesses saw the two having a drunken fight.
"Human beings are complex. Women are complex," Meester said. "I think a friendship, especially as it gets older ... tends to evolve. ... I hope we portray that friendship as real. That it isn’t perfect, we aren’t on the same page, and yet there's so much love there for each other."
Screenplay writer Sarah Alderson, who wrote the 2020 novel of the same name, said she thought of her own friendships when she created the fictional one between Beth and Kate.
"I remember being a child and my mom always saying to me your girlfriends will always be there for you — boys will come and go," she said in a recent Zoom interview. "She was right. I have the most amazing bunch of female friends, who I really find inspiring and uplifting. I did not want this to be a negative showcase of female friendship."
Despite what happens in the film — Beth's tragic murder — Alderson said it was important to the story that "even by end of it, Beth was trying to find justice for her friend."
