The suburbs are hell. That is what movies always tell us. Perfect nuclear families living in their McMansions often have any but perfect life. It’s not exactly new cinematic territory, rather, this well has been tapped many times because it’s just a lot of fun to watch rich families implode, often at the hands of each other. In that vein “The girl in the pool” an upcoming suburban-set thriller from director Dakota Gorman and screenwriter Jackson Reid Williams offers nothing new. Nevertheless, it is really exciting with its many twists and turns.
Freddie Prinze Jr., who was once a teen idol, plays Tom, the family head and a businessman; he is still handsome but feels outdated (at one point, Prinze Jr. splashes his face with water and the back of his balding head reflects in the mirror, and it struck me how rare it is to see any stars actually allow signs of their aging to show on screen). His birthday is being celebrated tonight; he should meet Kristen for dinner at an upscale restaurant soon. A much younger woman named Hannah (Gabrielle Haugh) drops by unannounced when Tom gets home early.
Their dalliance in the family’s pool quickly becomes murder scene while Tom is initially presented as the culprit trying to clean up after her body has been hidden from view during a surprise party organized by his wife Kristen (Monica Potter), adult children Rose (Brielle Barbusca) and Alex (Tyler Lawrence Gray). Although we’re firmly planted in Tom’s psyche as he re-hashes their afternoon delight and its grisly aftermath, the choppy flashbacks are careful not to reveal exactly who did the deed and why the woman was murdered.
Pressure builds at the party. People keep coming close to where he has hidden the body. Moreover, his father-in-law William (Kevin Pollak – also providing some acerbic charm) harasses Tom, making it clear that he and Kristen have been having marital problems for a while. Yet another unexpected guest pushes Tom over the edge. As Tom descends into a drug-induced paranoia frenzy, the film piles on so many twists that we end up with an entire family with blood on their hands.
In one scene, Gorman playfully shifts perspective from a close-up shot of Tom to a wide angle view of Alex, Rose, and her boyfriend watching him as he stumbles through the backyard. It’s a refreshing reminder that this is not only a movie but also shows how deeply immersed in his own world Tom’s character is often depicted as though he was in his own movie. Too bad then that Gorman isn’t always this razor sharp because Williams’ script has such an undercurrent of mordant humor that easily could have made this whole thing pitch-black comedy.
The same goes for the uneven characterization of the women. In the girl in the pool Hannah (played by Haugh) appears to be there only to look good in bikinis and speak lines laden with red herrings. Potter, who is always solid, brings something more than just stock character in Kristen however most of it amounts to stock character anyway. I waited eagerly hoping at some point she would give us an amazing monologue like she did in Along Came A Spider which is equally stylistically tawdry; but alas, it never comes.
Rosie is similarly underdeveloped, kind of a mixed bag of Gen-Z stereotypes, though Barbusca tries hard to save it with some funny line readings.
The girl in the pool By design Alex is the son who remains elusive until the 3rd act twist in which he becomes an integral part of everything. As for Gray, he holds nothing back in giving excuses that are all weak and irrational as well as being vulnerable. A realistic photocopy of his father who is ordinary and completely self-absorbed.
Not surprisingly, Prinze Jr., who served as an executive producer on the project, has the lead role that is quite meaty and he does it brilliantly. Unlike Burt Lancaster’s crestfallen suburban patriarch in “The Swimmer,” Tom is always presented as pathetic. He asks his friend, “Am I a good man?” at the beginning but from start it seems pretty clear that he isn’t. The film never once puts him in a positive light, just sweaty and sad. When flustered, he always needs five minutes to think up something but Tom’s like this zero who could be given one whole year and still not come up with something right.
Tom’s eventual journey towards something resembling redemption is played a little too straight. One final bad decision to cap off a the girl in the pool film full of bad decisions should be laced with dramatic irony since it shows how white male anger often goes unchallenged through life because those in power tend to protect it rather than condemn it (Baker).
It’s a sting that would have been better served on a more preposterously pulpy platter. Instead, the film ends with a limp whimper. What could have made for deliciously dark satire instead lingers in aggressively average liminality space?
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