By Harry Mayes, MA Neuroscience
The novel-turned-film was a disturbing and uncomfortable film in all the wrong ways - cringey and pretentious hardly cover it. From unnecessarily intimate close-ups to unemphatic dialogue (possibly intentional but irrespectively dull) to try-hard interpretive dance breaks to embody some sexual metaphor or another, Swimming Home, whilst rich in colour, was limited in enjoyment. The excellent acting, colours and soundtrack are the only facets that stopped this project from being completely devoid of entertainment.
A family plagued by a failing marriage on a holiday in Greece (originally France in the novel but was for whatever reason changed) are disturbed by a stranger floating in their pool face down. Once they realise the stranger, Kitty, is not in fact dead, they accommodate her and in moments act as though they’ve known her all along.
Justin Anderson’s direction clearly took a lot of inspiration from his training as a painter. These rich references include the Hockney-inspired pool and colours and a palm full of ants that screamed Salvador Dali. While the visuals and scenery may emanate from these painters, the characters are not so masterfully crafted. Kitty seems to be a sort of adversary catalyst for the stagnant family. Kitty (a grown woman) sleeps with Nina (the 15-year-old daughter) and prompts her sexual awakening, provokes Joseph’s (the father) introspection on his traumatic past and Isabel’s (the mother) loss of empathy and all emotion. While the vast experiences of each character sound rich, they are never quite woven together, or realised for anything beyond what they are. No evident meaning is drawn between or from these characters' experiences and so they remain, from start to finish, as allusive as a Dali.
Sarketzi’s cinematography was hard to come to a verdict on. Most, if not all, the shots were off-centre, which I actually enjoyed. From the start, it contributed to the feeling that something, or everything, is off. If the drastically vivid colours, combined with the eerie, and sometimes harrying soundtrack, hadn’t somehow indicated this, the composition of the shots really drove it home. Where the cinematography lost me was with the close-ups. Relentlessly close, and in combination with the off-centredness, sometimes too off-centre, there were effectively shots that were 90% wall and 10% subject. It took me out of it, suddenly I wasn’t a watcher but a director, thinking how I would have shot that better. I was no longer captured by the film. One scene comes to mind in a car where some important dialogue is occurring and all we can see is the roof of the car and the shaded eyes of only one of the speakers at the bottom of the screen. It felt pretentious and try-hard. This aggression with the shots could have been believable and even enjoyable if, say, they became more aggressive and off centre as the film went on and became more sinister (as it did). Instead, they were randomly dispersed with no evident connection to plot or tone. Despite this, coming from Isabel’s emotional disconnect was one of the funniest scenes of the film, that I laughed aloud at: when she walks into a restaurant with a horse and blames the owner for his understandable disarray.
The film was also littered with hyper-sexual interpretive dance cuts that were meant to represent something about someone in the film, but who can say what or who? The film was also filled with so many naked men seemingly for the sake of it that it felt aimless and insecure in its goal – as if shock factor was needed regularly to negate the dull plot. All this said, the acting was good, and they did a very good job considering the writing, making the film at least watchable. Particularly Isabel and Nina’s characters really brought the dull to life and were at times a saving grace. Another aspect to be praised is the soundtrack which was unsurprisingly nominated for soundtrack of the year. It was aptly harrowing and harassing on the ear, perfectly complimenting the eerie nature, whilst having an interesting contrast at idyllic points of the film, which itself made them untrustworthy in their safety.
While the film is rightly subject to much criticism, the redeeming features do make it watchable and probably enjoyable for some too. Sadly, the dominating elements such as the cinematography and writing are prone to cause a disconnect from the viewer, being too ‘for-the-sake-of-it’ rather than purposeful.
What did you think of this adaptation?
