Yep, it's not a metaphor—there really is a pool in The Pool

Paddling Away from Mainstream

America goes dysfunctional, indie goes to India

Spare some sympathy for Rory Culkin who plays Scott, the hapless 15-year-old protagonist of the bleak dysfunctional-family drama Lymelife; Culkin would clearly be much better off if, like older brother Macaulay, he too were home alone with only some idiot burglars to contend with.

Instead, this poor sod finds himself trapped in the late 1970s with a neurotic, unhappy mother (Jill Hennessy, Crossing Jordan) who is so paranoid about Lyme disease that she wraps his cuffs and sleeves with duct tape to keep out those killer ticks; and a philandering father (Alec Baldwin), a real estate mogul in the making, who is putting the make on the neighbour next door (Cynthia Nixon, Sex and the City) who is drowning in self pity because her husband (a dissipated looking Timothy Hutton) actually has Lyme disease and is reduced to hiding in the basement in a depressed fog his meds can’t begin to alleviate.

Then there’s the cute girl next door (perky Emma Roberts, Nancy Drew), whom Scott has a coming-of-age crush on, but who thinks of him like a younger brother while dreaming of hotter older boys. And there’s talk of a foreshadowing award for the Hutton character, a long-time hunter, who sometimes wanders around with a deer rifle in his shaking hands.

Written and directed by first-timer Derick Martini (whose name sounds like the moniker for a second-tier porn star), Lymelife clearly wants to be put on the top shelf alongside such dysfunction-at-the-junction/suburbia-as-moral-wasteland films as Squid and the Whale, The Ice Storm and American Beauty. Unfortunately this is overly familiar territory, executed here with something less than panache. Culkin’s not a bad little actor, but Baldwin and Nixon play hateful, patronizingly written stereotypes, while Hennessey doesn’t seem to have a consistent grasp on her character. Lyme disease certainly qualifies as an intriguing metaphor for the American Nightmare, but in terms of creativity Lymelife feels like an exhibit in a wax museum.

★ ★ ½

(Lymelife opens Friday at the Roxy)

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In an unusual example of west meets east, documentary filmmaker Chris Smith (American Movie) makes his first foray into fiction filmmaking by taking a short story set in Iowa and relocating it to India. The Pool features a non-millionaire slumdog, this one an illiterate 18-year-old named Venkatesh. His main employment is as a “hotel boy” who mops rooms and clean toilets, but Venkatesh also hawks plastic bags to sidewalk shoppers—a lowest-level enterprise he pursues in company with his younger pal, Jahangir.

One day Venkatesh becomes obsessed with an azure-blue swimming pool he spots in a rich man’s yard, returning frequently to stare at this alluring symbol of wealth. The man has an insolent teenage daughter named Ayesha, who also catches Venkatesh’s eye. He manages to wriggle himself into their lives, soon becoming their part-time gardener. Although Venkatesh finds ways to socialize with the daughter—including going for forest hikes and even renting a rowboat for an afternoon on the water—he eventually finds he has more in common with the dad, a gruff but wise man who advises Venkatesh to go to school and improve himself. By the time Venkatesh receives a great opportunity, he takes advantage of it in an unusual way that resonates with a couple of themes that have floating in this languidly inviting Pool.

Naturalistic and unforced, this is a unique hybrid that not only draws on Smith’s background in documentaries but also combines the sensibility of an American indie film with the exoticism of its foreign location. It has “minor filmfest fave” written all over it, despite the leisurely pace and lack of any exciting plot revelations. Smith’s camera calmly records this world and its characters without judgement: the film doesn’t feel the need to either lament or protest the harsh conditions endured by the majority of India’s citizens. If you are in the mood for a gentle, well observed, “not much happens” kind of film . . . take the plunge!

★ ★ ★

(The Pool opens Friday at the Odeon)