Summary
A Week Away is hardly fronting anything special.
This review of Netflix film A Week Away contains no spoilers — the musical was released on the streaming service on March 26, 2021.
A Week Away introduces Will — a smart but troubled kid with only two choices; either attend a summer camp or go to juvenile detention. He’s the generic teen drama heartthrob, with a hint of moodiness, the bad boy that is hated and adored. The summer camp is a god-loving holiday experience; all the teens are believers. The Netflix film has a byline — a bad boy attends a religious camp and meets a girl.
The musical drama has promise, and with some good numbers, the film may have hit the spot. Unfortunately, A Week Away is painfully below-average. It succumbs to accept a basic script with on-the-surface performances to get the point across. The emotions only display well in the music, but even the numbers are desperate to inject life into the story.
There is not enough emphasis on what kind of kid Will is. It’s all good hyping him up to be troubled and dangerous, then softening him as soon as he arrives on camp. Propping Will up as this certain personality does the film a disservice. They would have been better off watering down the image that he portrays in the first few scenes.
Of course, Netflix’s A Week Away centres on a romance — Will meets Avery at the camp, a strict religious follower who embraces this life. Will has to navigate lies and pretend that he’s the same as everyone else while convincing others that his friend George is his cousin. The film sends out a simple message — do not compromise your own character for another person’s need; this is a typical, romantic message that laces through in all dramas, so A Week Away is hardly fronting anything special.
In some films, the story is not great, but the music is good — A Week Away does not inspire either.
