‘Weapons’ Review: Gripping Mystery, Weak Reveal

A genuinely absorbing mystery about children vanishing on their own keeps you hooked through its smart structure and strong performances, but when the film finally explains itself, it settles for an easy, almost cliché answer that undercuts everything built before.

Credit: New Line Cinema

One night, dozens of children disappear all at once. But these children aren’t kidnapped. They all leave their homes of their own free will, run into the distance, and are never heard from again… How could something like this possibly happen? In real life, of course, we can’t explain it. But when watching a film, the first thing that comes to mind is that it must be hypnosis. And indeed, that’s exactly what it is — the film doesn’t try to trick us or lead us toward a conclusion different from our initial guess.

To be honest, when I started watching it, or as the story progressed, I didn’t think the mystery would be as simple as that. I expected something far more complex behind it. The disappearance of dozens of children in the middle of the night, all leaving their homes of their own free will, or the reason why the school principal, Marcus (Benedict Wong), attacks Justine (Julia Garner) — all of these…