“The Girl in the Pool” is a laugh riot, delivering sitcom-style shenanigans rather than a sincere sense of tension. Whether it’s intended to be funny or not is debatable. Director Dakota Gorman’s Hitchcock-inspired, psychological thriller about marital infidelity and a fracturing family takes a few of its cues from “Rope,” hiding a key figure in a trunk as a party transpires and a mystery murderer remains in their midst. But the similarities end there. Regardless of whether we’re supposed to chuckle at our hero’s crumbling sanity or empathize with his strife, it’s empty-calorie viewing designed for viewers to either mock or embrace its hijinks. Those who do celebrate its tawdry twists and turns, however, are assured to have a good time.
Meek middle manager Thomas (Freddie Prinze Jr.) seemingly has the perfect life. He has a good job, a huge home in the serene suburbs, two kids — clean-cut teenagers Alex (Tyler Lawrence Gray) and Rose (Brielle Barbusca) — and a loving wife, Kristen (Monica Potter). He’s also hiding a big secret: an affair with a younger woman, Hannah (Gabrielle Haugh). Yet their latest torrid tryst in his backyard ends in disaster when she turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, floating face-down in the pool, bleeding profusely from a head wound. Since his family is due home any minute, the panic-stricken adulterer hides the lifeless, bloodied body amongst the faded neon foam noodles and ring floats in the pool supplies trunk on the side of the house.
Thomas’ catastrophe quickly turns into calamity once Kristen reveals she’s planned a surprise party for his birthday at the scene of the crime, inviting all his closest friends and colleagues. That includes Thomas’ cantankerous father-in-law William (Kevin Pollak), who despises Thomas and walks into every scene with an insult lobbed at the birthday boy. Why he chose to attend a party for someone he hates is the bigger mystery afoot. But as Thomas frantically attempts to clear his name, giving himself multiple pep talks in front of bathroom mirrors and sorting through a few clues, the festivities worsen with guests hanging out near the storage chest, using it as spot to make out or do drugs. It’s clear he has a long night ahead of him — one filled with debauched frivolity and frazzled nerves.
Gorman and screenwriter Jackson Reid Williams pile on gimmick upon gimmick, beginning the proceedings with Thomas in media res, furiously scrubbing his blood-soaked sins away in the shower. His plight unfolds in a non-linear structure, switching back and forward on the timeline. While it’s never confusing, these flashbacks mostly provide cringe-worthy details (like hearing Thomas’ incel-ish best friend call him a “Beta” after not breaking the annoying neighbor’s camera drone) rather than add clarity to the present, which can also be fairly outlandish considering they quote Gandhi and say Prinze is “like Vin Diesel with hair.” Audiences will feel their bodies recoiling, hearing Thomas and Hannah’s smooching sessions punctuated by the actors’ hilariously loud lip-smacking. And superfluous events, like Hannah’s home tour where she slinks around the master bedroom and closet in her skivvies while destroying Kristen’s clothes and messing with her jewelry, call the film’s perspective into question as Thomas has no clue she ever did such devious things.
There are moments where Gorman and Williams lean into the inherent comedy of Thomas’ precarious situation. The scene where he grabs a large decorative vase after hearing strange noises outside before being surprised by party guests loosely functions as a setup for when he, in all seriousness, pulls a gun during the film’s mind-numbingly ridiculous resolution. Prinze plays the comedic undertones perfectly, specifically in the scene where he convinces his crew to return to the party after catching them smoking weed while sitting on Hannah’s makeshift coffin. It also doubles as the filmmakers’ spin on the unbraced sink scene in Darren Aronofsky’s “mother!” where anxiety and nervous laughter are birthed. Plus, the sharp cut from inside Thomas’ coke-fueled confusion, where his children observe him acting like a cat mesmerized by the DJ’s light machine, is a high point in the film’s lunacy.
Still, the filmmakers fail to properly construct suspense. The antagonistic relationship between Thomas’ obnoxious pals Randall (Jaylen Moore) and Mike (Michael Sirow) stalls immediately. Hushed secrets between Alex and Kristen aren’t developed enough for us to believe their whispers are stoking Thomas’ suspicions. Potter and Prinze, who previously starred together in the rom-com mystery “Head Over Heels,” are dealt a disservice by the lax material; their dynamic doesn’t generate much of a spark. It’s also difficult to buy a completely unmotivated turn by William later in the film.
Aesthetically, “The Girl in the Pool” is loaded with artifice to jazz things up, from internalized sound design that places us within the protagonist’s paranoia (switching from stereo sound to a muffled mono when memories pull him out of casual conversations) to various Dutch angles when his world spirals out of control. Gorman, along with her editor Rob Bonz and sound designer Lawrence He, marries the sound and vision during these segments, showing Thomas’ stress culminating in rapid flurries of imagery and audible echoes, reverberations and tinnitus.
Tone is key in films this silly. So when these filmmakers don’t hit a precise tone, despite their ensemble’s straight-faced delivery of hokey dialogue and clichéd scenarios, the picture flounders. Shifts from silly to serious occur frequently, though the thriller is better served when it keeps the proceedings buoyant, having us root against the hero instead of for him. Gorman takes a decidedly regressive approach to the conclusion, pulling strands of inspiration from Adrian Lyne’s “Fatal Attraction” in hackneyed ways. Nevertheless, even the poor form of “The Girl in the Pool” is sufficient enough to garner more than a few cackles to keep viewers invested in its wildly stupefying journey.
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