I first learned about this movie when I heard Gillian Jacobs being interviewed about it on NPR. It was framed as a light-hearted coming of age (of sorts) movie, in which the main character discovers who she is and who she wants to be through a few days of wild travel with her friends. I was intrigued enough that the movie stuck in the back of my mind as one to watch, so when we decided to start reviewing movies on Netflix, this was the first one I picked.
Ibiza tells the story of a young-ish woman (I'm guessing late twenties?) who gets a big break at work - she is sent to Spain to close a huge deal for her company. Her two friends Leah and Nikki convince her to let them come with so they can party in between work obligations. As soon as they arrive in Barcelona the movie quickly descends into a never ending party. The big story line is a romance between Harper and a world famous DJ, she follows him to Ibiza, putting the big deal and her job at risk.
There were certainly funny moments in this movie - I laughed out loud quite a bit. My favorite character by far was Nikki, played wonderfully by Vanessa Bayer. But overall, it was annoying. It was party scene after party scene: bass thumping music, wild lighting, and rampant drug and alcohol use. I'm not a total fuddy-duddy, the presence of those actions in a movie doesn't automatically make me dislike it. But they way they were presented in this movie rubbed me the wrong way - despite taking massive risks - driving with impaired strangers, going to strangers houses on whim, taking unknown drugs from strangers, and more, there were no consequences for any of the characters involved.
SPOILERS AHEAD. DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE OR DON'T CARE ABOUT SPOILERS.
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SERIOUSLY, SPOILERS. I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THIS ENDING.
Ok, I have to discuss the end of the movie because it was the worst. Harper was an idiot - she partied too long and too hard (yeah, yeah love was possibly involved, whatever) and she missed her work meeting. Luckily Nikki stepped in and pretended to be her! And despite knowing nothing and acting like a general air head, her charm and looks landed her the deal. All was well until the clients Skyped with Harper's boss and she revealed that Nikki was not in fact Harper. Ok, huge climax, right? She's gonna have to learn her lesson, change her ways, grow up a bit!
Nope. Cut to Harper in her boss's office, getting fired, and Harper tells her off and says she is going to start her own company and steal all of their clients. This boss was supposed to be "the worst" but as far as I could tell her worst quality was actually expecting Harper to do her job. I feel like a baby boomer writing this, but geez louise this kind of story telling gives millenials a bad rap. Yes we can be flighty, quit jobs on a whim (I mean, I'm one to talk) but we do face real world consequences for doing such things. This movie was a complete fantasy where Harper could get away with whatever she wanted and still come out on top.
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SPOILERS COMPLETE.
This movie isn't so bad that I will tell you not to watch it, but I will caution you that it may not be worth your time. There are so many other good movies on Netflix, feel free to let this one drop to the bottom of your queue!