Dakota Gorman’s directorial, “The Girl in the Pool,” is a frightfully silly film. There’s the guise of twists it adopts. All the trappings of suspense and withholding are in place. Jackson Reid Williams’ screenplay drowns in a plethora of gimmicky tricks and tired conceits while creating a flashback structure that ensures we aren’t in the know until a much later point in the narrative. Plausibility issues rankling the narrative galore, but the film doesn’t seem to be so bothered by them. Judging by the way the film progresses, that seemed to be on the bottom end of the makers’ priorities.
Just as the screenplay is littered with inane, cliched revelations one can very well see coming from a mile away, the direction is harebrained. How much can the director salvage material when it’s this sloppy and saddled with obvious bends in its narrative that don’t even care to etch any of its characters convincingly? By foisting a burden on generating suspense, most characters are stripped of agency, resolve, or genuine palpable urges.
The Girl in the Pool (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
In this film, every actor seems to be sleepwalking through the story. It is as if the cast knows very well how there’s nothing they can do that stands a chance to prevent the film from coming off the disaster it undoubtedly is. Somewhere stranded between outright cringe, corny, and a pretense of trying to pull back on key information and plot points so as to build tension, the film gets entirely lost. We have all seen this film and the story it wends through too many times in both blander and sharper avatars.
The protagonist is absolutely insufferable. Freddie Prinze Jr. plays the middle-aged Thomas. He puts up a show of being the perfect family man, devoted to upholding its best interests. But he has been having a steady affair with the much younger Hannah (Gabrielle Haugh). The film opens on his birthday. His wife, Kristen ( Monica Potter), has been planning a party for a month. But he looks severely worried. While his wife is exasperated by his lack of enthusiasm, he cannot reveal to her what has been nagging him.
Earlier in the day, his mistress had dropped by in a clandestine visit to wish him. Things between them went so far as a tryst at the pool. She excuses herself to go to the washroom. As she tours the house, she tries Kristen’s various stuff, destroying some of it. Tom doesn’t seem to be aware that she does these things. He’s back at the pool to find Hannah dead.
A Puzzle of Emotions and Inconsistencies
The film doesn’t explain to any degree why or how Tom doesn’t look so shocked at her death or how it came to be. The focus is rather on the fact that he has to cover it up and ensure it doesn’t come to anyone’s notice. The film depicts his escalating paranoia at being apprehended, and Hannah’s body discovered, which he dumped in the bin after carefully sealing it up.
His father-in-law, William (Kevin Pollak), is continually suspicious of him. He makes it abundantly clear to Tom on countless occasions that he can gauge he’s hiding something. Wouldn’t it be best if Tom just lets it rip? What is so obviously bothering them? William suggests without concealing the least of his unpleasantness.
Tom also suspects his wife and daughter, Rose (Brielle Barbusca), are hiding something from him. Do they know his secret? Instead, it turns out Rose is just dreading telling him her decision to drop out of school. Her bizarre reason is yet another of the myriad of foolish things clogging the film. It doesn’t even matter because it’s terribly inconsequential.
What Drives Tom to the Edge?
It is also why so much of the film hovers close to feeling like it’s hell-bent on betraying after poking elements of thrill and tension. Ultimately, the edge is completely blunted as the screenplay indulges in a lot of trite action by incorporating a bunch of interactions with Tom’s friends, a lot that is uniformly dull and unengaging. You’ve to struggle to pay attention or be remotely interested in what all transpires.
Tom tries to keep people away from the bin. So, Rose’s boyfriend is introduced for no good reason other than propping up that one scene alone. Tom also has to negotiate with the neighbor’s kid, whose drone camera captured the tryst. He has to broker a deal to snatch that footage off the kid’s hands by promising him a brand-new PlayStation.
However, chaos and trouble hit a peak when Hannah’s partner, Kevin (Rushi Kota), shows up at the birthday party. Tom, who had grabbed Hannah’s phone, and knows he had been calling her. Kevin claims he landed there because her Uber history pointed to that destination. Tom confronts Kevin upstairs in the house. He tells her he knows Kevin has violent and abusive impulses. This is what Hannah had implied to Tom. Kevin is shocked. When he realizes Tom has been cheating on him with Hannah, Tom knocks him unconscious and ties him up.
The Girl in the Pool (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Who killed Hannah?
Alex turns up on the spot, which is when he confesses to Tom what he had done. He was in the house when Tom and Hannah were in the pool and heard Tom tell her he’d leave Kristen for her. He couldn’t control himself and killed her when Tom wasn’t around. Alex is scared of being put away in jail. Abruptly, the horrified duo of Kristen and Rose also pop up in the scene.
When Tom finally admits his infidelity, Kristen tells him she has been aware for months and is in the process of finalizing talks with her lawyers as well. Tom insists that the family listen to him for his plans to settle things right so that no harm comes to the kids, who are always his priority. The film ends with his surrender to the cops, taking the blame for Hannah’s killing and sheltering his family.
