The Girl in the Pool
The Girl in the Pool
There’s a popular belief among film critics that the suburbs are awful. It’s high time the critics should watch this movie. The ideal nuclear families that possess McMansions are at times far from being ideal. The new domestic setting is not exactly fresh, but such settings, which are so interesting and fun to behold, are often deployed. It’s just that it’s very entertaining to watch families of the rich self-destruct and more often than not it’s themselves to blame. Therefore, the film entitled ‘The Girl in the Pool’ both written and directed by Dakota Gorman, brings nothing new to the disturbing trend. What is more, there are so many twists and turns and it is so much fun, yes it is.
Former teen heart_throb freddie Prinze Jr. dons tom’s role as the family figure head and businessman who looks handsome but seems outdated ( “he’s looks good, but his time has obviously gone”” “One never expects to see Freddie Prinze Jr. looking tired. No wonder most Hollywood stars consider appearance concerns, which are supposed to be a part of acting, quite silly.” He is celebrating his birthday and later is supposed to join his spouse Kristen (Monica Potter) for a fine dinner. Tom had finished work earlier than he needed so as to prepare himself for the Thanksgiving dinner with his family and is taken aback by the presence of his younger lover Hannah (Gabrielle Haugh.
Their physical affection in the family’s swimming pool soon turns tragic, and it is the audience’s assumption that it is Tom who is to blame for the death when in fact he is botting the death and is trying to clean-up the mess behind the guests who have come for the surprise party arranged by his wife along with their grown up kids, Alex Tyler Lawrence Gray and Rose Brielle Barbusca. Despite being heavy inside the character’s head as the he waits and impatiently replay the sexy time with the lady and the ugly state that followed them, the jarring quickcuts manage to obscure who was the killer and what was the purpose of the horrific murder these action left.
It is party stress, it is. Guests are getting too close to where Tom has hidden the body. I appreciated the support, but William, Tom’s father-in-law Kevin Pollak is acerbic but lovable, and makes it clear the couple hasn’t been able to keep their marriage together for a long time. Tom’s patience is wearing thin as he finds himself unexpectedly visited by another guest. The spiral descends into the depths of the paranoid and drug-hazed Tom, literary movement spins one plot twist after another, only for the whole family to find themselves covered in the buttocks.
In one segment, Gorman cheekily alters the point of view, zooming out from a cramped extreme view of Tom to a wide angle of Alex, Rose and her boyfriend who are glued to Tom’s give away as his pathetic figure ineptly staggers about the backyard.
It’s an interesting touch to know that while we are watching a The Girl in the Pool movie, say, Tom’s character in this case is so much grown into his character that it is as if he is watching his own movie. This is why it is quite unfortunate because Gorman is not always this chiseled when it comes to direction because there is an undercurrent of dark humor throughout Williams’ script that would have turned this whole thing into a dark comedy.
This was also witnessed in the inconsistent portrayal of the female ‘characters’. Haugh’s Hannah seems to be there just to look good in a bikini and deliver meaningless dialogue full of red herrings. The reliable Potter infuses something like steel into what is mostly a bland character developed in Kristen. I kept expecting her to get ‘the’ monologue moment…
But unfortunately, it never happens. The same applies to Rosie, who is similarly poorly structured because she is nothing more than a collage of a Gen-Z cartoon character, though Barbusca tries hard to improve this dull background by delivering several funny lines.
By intent, the son Alex, comes off as an utterly passive participant in the proceedings- barely making any contributions till in a third act twist, turns out to be the very centre of action. As much self destruction is the portion of the detective in this tale, Gray goes all in, redemption coming one pathetic excuse after another regarding his less-than-wholesome behavior with a wonderful blend of craziness and vulnerability. A cookie-cutter copy of his equally ordinary, yet completely self obsessed father.
Unequivocally, Prinze Jr, th eshoot’s executive producer had the most layered character in the entire project and his depiction of Tom was superb. In the case of Tom, unlike Bert Lancaster’s tormented and humiliated American parental figure in “The Swimmer,” chockfull of ridicule, he always appears to be undisturbed, calm and controlled. A fine example is in the first scene: ‘Am I a good man?’ he asks his friend, but it is obvious from the start that he is not indeed a good man. The The Girl in the Pool film does not venerate him even once as a visionary glory brimming with strong and eclipsing humane spirit, instead, drenched in sadness and excess moisture. Puzzled, he can be seen constantly requesting for five minutes in the event that he needs time to think of a solution; however, Tom is the type of loser who even if given a full year in Mak’s stead does not have ideas that are worth using.
The ultimate course that Tom seems to take towards towards a very Texas — country with rather depressing qualities makes the ending seem almost predictable – more than writer, towards redemption.
Finishing up a movie packed with several bad decisions is an ironic ending that one should expect, somewhere, dramatic irony, particularly, since that is how white men’s wrath, no matter the age, is often nurtured and shielded by the most powerful, is rather damning. The Girl in the Pool It’s the sort of punch that most likely would have sufficed better on a more laughably crass platter. In place of such a pay off though, the movie comes to a rather flabby whimper. That which had so much promise and potential unfolding into delicious dark comedy instead gets stuck in that uncomfortable place called “offensively mediocre.”
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- Genre: Drama, Mystery
- Country: united states
- Director: Dakota Gorman
- Cast: Freddie Prinze, Jr.Kevin Pollak, Monica Potter
