INFINITY POOL

Canada/Croatia/Hungary, 2023, 118 minutes, Colour.

Alexandrer Skarsgaaard, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman, Jalil Lespert, Thomas Kretschmann.

Directed by Brandon Cronenberg.

Infinity Pool is not a film that one can recommend for every audience. By the end of the film, we realise we have witnessed something of a descent into depravity. While there is reference to descent construction of a pool at the resort, Infinity Pool, which has had some disastrous accidents, the title might refer to an infinity pool of drowning in exploitative behaviour Which means that this is a moral parable, an allegory, a story that is a comment on contemporary living, values, and amorality.

The film has been written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg. While he stands on his own as a film writer and director, he is always considered in the light of his father, David Cronenberg, who has made films in his native Canada for over 40 years. In many ways, with his initial small-budget science fiction films, with strong elements of violence, sometimes shock for audiences, then moving into bigger budget and having a world reputation, David Cronenberg extended audience tolerance for more explicit presentation of themes as in his 1997 drama, Crash. Brandon Cronenberg, making films in the 21^st-century, goes further in some explicit treatment of sexual behaviour as well is of violence and blood.

The setting is a fictional island, La Toqua, a luxury resort with exclusive visitors, staff, treatment, contrasting with the inhabitants of the island who are looked down on by the guests, a pool, fenced off. Initially, the seems rather ordinary but when the central couple, James and M Foster (Alexander Skarsgaard and Cleopatra Coleman) start talking with another couple who seem exotically international (Mia Goth, using her own British accent after being persuasively American in X and Pearl, with Jalil Lespert) and are persuaded to go outside the guarded limits of the resort for a picnic.

Then, something which does happen in a lot of films, drunken driving, failing lights, a hit run death of a local. And the moral issues begin to emerge. James was driving and has to take responsibility of the friends say the police are corrupt and merciless and so the decide to leave the dead man on the Road.

As might be expected, James is arrested, taking with his wife to the police station, isolated, interrogated by the Detective who offers a solution used for revenges justice. Guests pay the Detective and he finds a citizen, a process of James going into liquids to provide a mould and the citizen transformed into a double who is executed. The scene of the execution, with James and his wife compelled to view, is graphic and disturbing.

At the beginning of this review, reference is made to “a descent into depravity”. His wife leaving, James can’t find his passport and is confined to the island, taken up by his friends, and their coterie of associates, whose behaviour becomes more and more care-less, more self-indulgent, violent, sexual, seeming to invite James into their values-less way of life, but also turning him into a victim. They have survived on their annual holiday on the island, being able to be as amoral, immoral as they wish, relying on payment and the execution of doubles.

And, yet, the group can go home at the end of their holiday each year, chatting about ordinary things, seemingly normal, promising to come the following year.

But, for James, the winter coming in, no guests, stormy seas, alone, sitting in drenching rain, and we the audience, our values having been tested, are wondering whether he is in anyway repentant, self-conscious, and the rains possibly cleansing – or not.

1. The work of the director, the influence of his father, going beyond his father in themes and in treatment, breaking barriers, psychology, sexuality, violence?
2. The story perceived as realism? As surrealism? As a parable? As an allegory for contemporary life?
3. The setting, the island, the resort, comfortable, rooms and accommodation, dining, the coast and scenery, the mountains, the water? Luxury? The guests?
4. The contrast with the life of ordinary people on the island, poor, looked down on by the guests, the role of the police, the guards, gates and fences, separation?
5. The introduction to James, reputation as a writer, writer’s block? Self-questioning about his talent? Relationship to his wife, her father, the publisher, her father disliking James? His dependence on her wealth? Her story and explanation, rebelling against her father, marrying the first man who came along? The strength of their marriage? Brittle?
6. The other guests, Gabi and Albin, their story, international backgrounds, the focus on Paris, their work, talents? Their friends at the resort?
7. The introduction of subversive themes, Gabi, her interactions with James, sexual behaviour (visually explicit)? The effect on James?
8. The conversations, the relationship between the couples, the proposal to go for the picnic, the drive, the swimming? Drinking? The return, the joking, hitting the man on the road? The moral dilemmas, information about the police and the strictness, the decision to leave the man on the road? The consequences for James, for his wife?
9. The police, arriving, the arrest, taking James and his wife, the police station, the separation, putting him in the cell, the white garment, the interrogation? James, the admission of guilt, excusing himself?
10. The twist in the plot, the idea of the double, of a citizen being taken, transformed into the likeness of the offender? James, the hallucinatory experience, the liquids, the immersion, the immersion of the double? And the money paid to the detective?
11. The buildup to the execution scene, James present, his wife, Gabi and Alban and the others? The victim, identical to James? The son of the victim, the explanation of laws of retaliation and vengeance, his age, with the knife, the visual violence of the stabbing and the close-ups of the wound?
12. The effect on James, wanting to get out, his wife and leaving, his not being able to find his passport, staying? The return of his wife, their discussions, her eventual leaving?
13. James, staying at the resort, Gabi and the friends? The coming every year to the resort? Their behaviour, drinking, daring James to other actions? To raid the house and steal? Their being taken by the police, and the repetition of the doubles, each having their double, the execution of the doubles, all kneeling to be executed? Their enjoyment of the execution, having experienced it many times?
14. The close-ups on each of the friends, the characters, behaviour, seemingly respectable, that evil?
15. The moral issues, the James, joining in, participating? No morality with the others, their behaviour, reckless? The attack on the detective, humiliating him, brutal? His being corrupt?
16. The glimpse of the people on the island, behind the fences, the family, the death, the women, helping James?
17. The moral dilemma for James, the audience? The sinking into depravity?
18. The group and then making fun of James, his trying to leave, their stopping the bus, making him walk ahead, Gabi and her continued mockery, lying on the car, condemning him?
19. The group, the departure after the holiday, their seemingly normal chatter, ordinary, promising to come next year? The jolt for the audience in seeing each side of their characters?
20. And the finale, James, left at the resort, alone, the rain – drenching him or a possibility of cleansing?,