“Drop” works best when it stays along with its heroine within its limited main background for a while. Although it is instantly reminiscent of many other similar thriller flicks ranging from “Nick of Time” (1995) to “Carry-On” (2024), the movie has a substantial amount of fun and thrill to support its first two acts at least, and you may forgive its rather weak last act even while observing how it inevitably loses its steam during that part.

The heroine of the movie is a young single mother named Violet Gates (Meghann Fahy), who has worked as a therapist specializing in domestic violence after the death of her abusive husband. While her life is mostly devoted to her work and her little son, she is now about to have the first date with some guy she encountered via a dating online application, and she understandably cannot help but become nervous even though her son will be taken care of by her younger sister in the meantime.

Violet and her date are going to have a dinner together at a posh restaurant located at the top of one of those skyscrapers in Chicago. Not long after her arrival, her date texts her that he will be a little late, so she wonders whether he will eventually show up or not. Fortunately, he arrives a few minutes later, and they soon find themselves talking more and more with each other as enjoying the view in front of them.

However, something begins to bother Violet around that point. Somebody keeps dropping messages on her smartphone via some other online application, and both she and her date think this is just a mere prank done by someone in the restaurant, but, what do you know, Violet soon comes to realize that this is not a prank at all, while her date is not looking. Someone behind those online messages demands her to steal and then destroy a certain object in her date’s possession, and Violet has no choice but to follow the demand after seeing that her son and younger sister will be killed if she refuses to do that.

Of course, she is subsequently demanded to do something much more serious, and that makes her all the more nervous and conflicted than before. Yes, she surely tries one thing after another for getting out of this nightmarish circumstance, but, not so surprisingly, her opponent seems to hear and see her as well as everything in the restaurant, and Violet is reminded again and again of how much she is trapped right from the beginning as time is running out for her minute by minute.

Once the stage is set after the first act, the movie frequently toys with our expectation via what was termed by my late mentor Roger Ebert as the law of character economy. Besides Violet and her date, there are many other people in the restaurant, and some of them are certainly prominent enough to draw the suspicion from us as well as Violet. For example, when a certain character appears for the first time, you will instantly see that this figure will be bound to be one of several prime suspects around Violet and her date, and you will also have a pretty good idea on how the movie will play with that later, if you are a seasoned moviegoer like me.

Despite its many predictable aspects, the movie did a competent job of generating enough suspense from several key scenes including the one where Violet must think and act fast for having more chance and time for saving her family. The situation becomes all the trickier as her date senses more of how she visibly looks distracted and uncomfortable, and she must assure him that everything is fine and well despite their increasingly awkward date.

Meanwhile, the screenplay by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach adds more character details to the story at times. As getting cornered more and more by her opponent, Violet is reminded again of her painful personal experience of domestic violence, and we come to learn a bit more of how traumatic it has been for her. As a matter of fact, she is quite helpless and desperate just like she was in the past, and it looks dreadfully possible to her that there is no chance for escape for her in this time.

During its last act, the movie becomes less engaging as becoming much more preposterous than before, but that is expected from the start, and its lead actress’ solid performance compensates for that to some degree. Meghann Fahy, who has been mainly known for her Emmy-nominated supporting turn in HBO TV series “The White Lotus”, deftly goes up and down along the story without making any misstep, and we keep guessing whether her character can really survive this particularly tough date. Besides looking convincing in his character’s obliviousness to Violet’s ongoing plight, Brandon Sklenar clicks well with Fahy during several early scenes, and the other main cast members including Gabrielle Ryan, Reed Diamond, Violett Beane, and Jeffery Self dutifully fill their respective spots around Fahy and Sklenar as required.

Overall, “Drop” is a fairy enjoyable product, and director Christopher Landon, who previously directed “Happy Death Day” (2017) and “Freaky” (2020). gives us another nice genre variation added to his advancing career. I was not surprised that much, but I will not deny that I was entertained a bit more than expected, so I will not complain for now.