When the studio that made the recently released Drop came on the screen, my heart sank.  Most of what Blumhouse is known for is horror, and I usually avoid that genre.  The trailer for today’s film did suggest that it might be scary, though I did not notice a production company.  At any rate, it was between this and Amateur, the latter of these appearing to be too murder-y.  If you watch the preview for Drop, you might be led to think that it is of the same cinematic substance.  What kept me interested were the characters, who had me rooting for them despite what other critics might say about them.  What separates me is my Faith.  It may be a stereotype, but I suspect that others wanted a higher body count.  Life wins here, and I am happy to tell you how.

You would not think Drop is pro-life by its opening scene.  Violet (Meghann Fahy), a single mother, is being stalked by Blake (Michael Shea).  He is beating her to within an inch of her life.  Seeing the fear in her eyes, he puts his gun in her hands, points it at himself, and dares her to pull the trigger knowing she is too afraid to do so.  We then shift to five years later and Violet is meeting with a patient online in her role as a therapist.  Once the session is complete, it is time to have a moment with her son, Toby (Jacob Robinson), before greeting her sister, Jen (Violett Beane).  Jen has arrived to babysit Toby as Violet is about to go out on a date with Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a man she men on the internet and has been exchanging messages with for months.  Because it has been such a great conversation, she is nervous, hoping that it could be the beginning of a good relationship.  With help from Jen on the outfit and encouragement from Toby, it is off to the downtown Chicago restaurant for Jen to finally meet Henry.  Jen arrives first and receives texts from an embarrassed Henry saying that he is running a little late.  To pass the time, she sits at the bar and orders a glass of wine.  While waiting, she has an awkward conversation with Richard (Reed Diamond), who is there to meet a blind date.  They commiserate about their shared anxiousness until they are interrupted by Phil (Ed Weeks), the piano player who tries to hit on Violet.  She is saved by, first, the bartender, Cara (Gabrielle Ryan Spring), and then Henry’s arrival.  As they sit and try to make their way through the early pleasantries, Violet asks for forgiveness for keeping her phone on the table.  This is her first time going out without Toby, and she feels the need to check in on things going on at home, usually by viewing the in-house security cameras.  This is what she explains to Henry, who is patience personified, but she has been getting an increasing number of AirDrops that she has been ignoring.  Eventually, she admits that she is getting them, and he explains how this might be happening.  Specifically, he mentions that whoever is doing it must be among the diners present.  Yet, in such a busy setting with so many people looking at their screens at any given moment, it is impossible to tell who is responsible.  Finally, she decides to accept one of the prompts and she is told to look in on the video feed from inside her home.  There is a man in the kitchen brandishing a silenced pistol, and the next message states that if she does not comply, Toby will die.  It also appears that whoever is behind this can see her every move.  This person also informs her that her cell has been cloned, thus everything she does on her device is viewed in real time by this mystery person.  In order to save her son, Violet is first instructed to steal Henry’s sim card from his camera.  Feigning losing her watch, the gentlemanly photojournalist offers to go searching, giving her time to retrieve the item.  Before doing so, she notices a number of pictures of documents.  It seems suspicious enough that she has little compunction about smashing it as she is told and flushing it down the toilet.  However, her next assignment is too much, made harder by the fact that Henry been willing to put up with her erratic behavior.  Violet is told that she must kill Henry, using a vile of poison she finds in the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom.  He had been about to leave, but with a kiss, he is convinced to stay and she orders a couple shots of tequila.  Having forgotten to include limes, he volunteers to return to the bar to retrieve the fruit, and she takes the moment to get out the toxin.  While waiting for Henry’s return, Violet looks around and sees one of her possible suspects eliminated with the arrival of his sister, as this person had said would happen.  This leaves Richard who, despite having his date leave abruptly, had remained at his seat the entire time.  She goes to talk to him and this is when it is revealed that he had been the one sending the AirDrops.  He works for the mayor and has been hired to kill Henry, who had found material proving corruption at city hall.  She had been chosen because of her profession and the fact that she had killed before, even though we learn in a flashback that Blake had turned the gun on himself, making her a patsy.  The conversation between Richard and Violet is interrupted by his desert, and Henry coming over to drink the shot of tequila.  With that, Richard calls off the attack, but tells the other killer to stand-by pending confirmation of Henry’s death.  Being most of the way through the sweet, Violet informs Richard that she had faked putting the poison in the alcohol, and instead added to what he is currently eating while he is not looking.  Enraged, Richard pulls out a gun, but Henry saves her by taking the bullet.  Before Richard dies, actually by falling through the window, he makes sure to phone his associate to carry out the murder.  Violet nearly falls after him, but once more the wounded Henry is there to rescue her. Getting his keys, she races back to her house and is able to prevent a greater tragedy.  We close with Violet visiting Henry in the hospital, planning a second date.

Given how this first date goes in Drop, I do not think I would be as eager as Henry is to go out again with Violet.  It may be stating the obvious, but I am not sure you could call what happens much of a “date.”  It is not just the fact that a few people die, including nearly Henry and Violet, but they are constantly getting up from their table to do other things.  Please note that this is not meant as a complaint against the movie.  What it does do is highlight Henry’s near infinite patience.  They say that patience is a virtue, and that is because of the Bible.  I could go with the tried-and-true verse that is 1 Corinthians 13:4, “Love is patient, love is kind. . . .”  However, for this one I want to focus on James 1:2-4, “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  Though this passage does not use the word “patience,” I think it speaks more clearly to what Henry undergoes.  Normally, seeing such behavior does not make for gripping cinema.  Most people would not be able to tolerate this kind of situation as he does.  Further, I expected his ability to endure to be too good to be true.  I figured he would be part of the plot somehow, which he sort of is, though on the right side.  My expectation is a latent cynicism in me against which I need to pray.

While we are on the topic of prayer, our heroine in Drop, Violet, deserves some.  Even the Church would say that a mother that is defending her children is justified in using lethal means to do so.  What is more important is her ability to overcome trauma.  A non-Christian will likely look at this and say that it is due to her training as a therapist.  That may be so, and Catholicism does not have an issue with seeking help for mental health.  Indeed, my own therapist is a practicing Catholic.  What I see here is the resilience of the human person as God created us.  Again, we can go to Scripture for this truth.  In 1 Corinthians 10:13, St. Paul writes, “No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it.”  This evidently can refer to what we see Violet endure at the beginning.  However, we see her do it again with everything that happens at the restaurant and after she makes it home in time to save Toby.  This is not to obviate the awful nature of abuse and violence.  Just because we can make it through such terrible events does not mean that we should seek them.  Instead, God gives us the best tool possible to cope with those awful times, and that is hope.  It is a word used by Henry and Violet to explain how they get through their worst moments, and what motivated them to come out this night.  God holds out the same hope for you.  I pray that you respond to it.

As for my response to Drop, it is a surprisingly positive one.  I confess to doing what many audience members do when watching such movies: wondering what I would do if put in that scenario.  It is not an easy one, however farfetched it may seem.  Again, what I like best are the sympathetic characters, and if nothing else, they are worth the price of admission.