Infinity Pool

A holiday with your girl takes quite a turn, you only came for a short stay, a brief sojourn, but when returning from the beach, an accident, leads to a breach, and the next day you're arrested, and interned. As you have wealth, you can settle and walk free, an odd procedure and some strange hyperbole, but a boundary's been stepped over, no longer fixed in an enclosure, plus there's a catalyst, to incite, who's full of glee.

Mia Goth, as the seductive Gabi Bauer, alongside her hedonistic friends, introduce the somewhat innocent James Foster, more than ably performed by Alexander Skarsgård, to their limitless world of excess, a world that doesn't quite reward him quite as well as it does his newly found playmates.

Great performances, kaleidoscopic cinematography, original in its interpretation, worth a watch, but you may well wish you hadn't, a bit like James.

That was a waste of time. I'm a fan of horror movies and watched this one based on the reviews and "10 best lists". Boy, that was a mistake. The movie started out with a good premise and went absolutely no where. What was the point of all that? It could have been something interesting and intriguing with moral questions and issues to discuss. Instead, the film was full of a bunch of what ifs, obnoxious performances, and gratuitous scenes that serve no purpose. I kept checking role time to see how more pretentious drivel I had to sit through. Good ide, awful execution. Things one to skip and let die.

James Foster is a one-novel author struggling with writer's block. He and his wife Em are vacationing at a resort on the idyllic, isolated isle of Li Tolqa, where their marital woes cause constant arguments. After meeting Gabi, a fan of his novel, and her husband Alban, James and Em venture outside the boundaries of the resort, where the two couples enjoy a drunken day of sunbathing. However, their dream vacation soon turns into a nightmare after an accident occurs, plunging James into a dark underworld of debauchery and excess. As he battles a twisted justice system, a bizarre cult and his own deepest fears, will James escape, or be trapped on the island ad infinitum?

Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, 'Infinity Pool' is an ambitious, headily atmospheric psychological horror that doesn't quite go the distance. Initially intriguing, then frustrating, and finally exasperating, the screenplay tries to balance too many different elements, failing at nearly all of them. Though the film tries to explore some interesting themes of identity, morality and escapism, they are not fully developed or resolved; coming across as rather half-baked.

Additionally, the surreal seediness of the first act- which draws one in brilliantly- does not sit well with the rote science fiction and action-oriented elements of the last two. A cloning sub-plot is both poorly explained and executed, and the denouement is anticlimactic and cliched. Cronenberg's characterisation is rather shallow, to boot, and the main character is largely unsympathetic. James is neither likable nor relatable, and his motivations and actions are often illogical and inconsistent.

With 'Infinity Pool', Cronenberg has created a surreal and distinct world, but fails to do anything interesting with it narratively. Conversely, the film is a visual delight, boasting striking cinematography from Karim Hussain, who uses analog methods in a digital medium to create its disturbing, dreamlike visual style. Hussain also employs unusual framing and lenses to express James' emotional turmoil, as well as the duality between the paradise-like resort and the hellish underworld of the island. 'Infinity Pool' is stunning, with vibrant colours, rich textures and grand compositions drawing the viewer into Cronenberg's horrific environment.

Furthermore, Tim Hecker's score adds to the film's eerie and unsettling atmosphere, and James Vandewater's editing is continuously adept. 'Infinity Pool' also boasts a fine central performance from Alexander Skarsgård, who makes the most out of Cronenberg's scant characterisation of James. Mia Goth also does strong work as the seductive and mysterious Gabi, though her tendency for overacting- which made her so appealing in 'X' and 'Pearl'- hampers the impact of her performance somewhat.

A disappointing waste of potential that leaves the viewer unsatisfied and confused, 'Infinity Pool' could- and probably should- have been much better than it is. Despite some interesting ideas and a strong first act, Cronenberg's narrative is unengaging and familiar. Though the cinematography is consistently alluring, the film is not, and the commendable efforts of Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth do little to keep one's interest held. In the end, perhaps the best one can say about 'Infinity Pool' is that it doesn't go on forever.

Infinity Pool, the latest from writer/director Brandon Cronenberg, focuses on James and Em Foster, on vacation to help James clear his head in order to attempt writing his second novel. James and Em meet and are guided by a mysterious couple also vacationing outside of the resort to find themselves stuck in a culture packed with sex, violence, and unimaginable terrors. After a fatal vehicular accident leaves them facing the wrath of local law enforcement, James and Em are faced with a decision: be executed for their crime or, if rich enough, watch themselves die. What results is a downward plunge into debauchery, murder, and desperation.

Infinity Pool stars Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth. Fresh off his tilt as Amleth in 2022's The Northman, Skarsgård plays a very different character here. In Infinity Pool Skarsgård is James Foster, struggling writer married to Em Foster, daughter of a power publisher and the couple's breadwinner. An amenable guy, James is enjoying his vacation with Em at Lotoka, a beachside country. Skarsgård plays James with the air of a man a bit adrift in life, clinging onto Em as a comfortable life raft. As an actor used to playing characters with power (see: True Blood) or iron determination (Mute, The Northman), Skarsgård takes a surprising turn as a meek, easily-lead man. While the change of pace is refreshing, Skarsgård's portrayal of James is nothing noteworthy. His passable acting is enough to offset the insanity that is Mia Goth.

Mia Goth as Gabi Bauer is trouble from the first moment she appears on screen until her final. A performance that starts unsettling before ramping up to completely unhinged, Goth milks every ounce of craziness she can from the script. While it's not always for the best (Goth has some truly questionable line readings in this), she's by far the overall best part of the movie. While her characterization is maddening, the motivations Cronenberg gives Gabi are nebulous at best. Thankfully, that's no fault of Goth's and when she shows up on screen, audiences are in for a treat.

Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, Infinity Pool is the director's second outing after 2020's amazing debut, Possessor. Sadly, the sophomore slump is apparent in his second project, giving audience and body horror fans a lackluster followup that's unfocused and meandering. From a directing standpoint, Cronenberg is still sharp, delivering tension and suspense along with the cringe-inducing scenes the family is known for. Extreme closeups of mutilation, murder, and blood by the buckets (topped off with a cumshot in the film's first 30 minutes) will put moviegoers on their backfoot while being completely vulnerable to whatever could happen next. Cinematographer Karim Hussain, who also shot the beautiful Possessor, delivers on the goods again, providing a remarkable visual journey that James embarks upon. Cronenberg's choice to shoot Infinity Pool in Croatia, one of the planet's most beautiful countries, while mostly resisting the opportunity to display that beauty and instead focus on the grime and side streets is a commendable decision that lines up with tone of the movie.

As a writer, after tackling the theme of identity loss in an increasingly technological world in Possessor, in Infinity Pool no such messages seem to exist outside of a general human desensitivity to death. The first act might be the story's strongest, developing characters and creating situations that will entice the audience to be locked in and attentive. Unfortunately in the second act turn, where everything starts to fall apart for James, is also where everything will fall apart for the audience. James' descent into depravity, while interesting to look at in a well executed montage of sex and psychedelics, ultimately leads to a chaotic story with little in the way of explanation or true resolution.

Overall, Infinity Pool is a mess of a movie. Within that mess are hints at something good, possibly great, but Cronenberg seems to be too in love with the idea of creating something off kilter more than telling an actual story. Alexander Skarsgård's performance is passable as a man lost in hedonism, while Mia Goth's unhinged insanity somehow fluctuates between amazing and downright lousy. Lacking the usual amount of body horror audiences have come to expect from the name Cronenberg, this film instead chooses to skate by on its ambience, which doesn't always work in its favor.

This is a great film to get lost in, and experience the story and it's main character, Skarsgard. I do love original films, and early in the piece, it was so cool, not knowing where the film was going, but later on, in the last 40 minutes, we have moments of predicability. I found this a fun shock movie, where we have some scenes. Which are truly memorably bizarre, the final one, a scene of normality, staying in my mind the most. This is one of these films, that lingers in the memory, days after you see it. It has strobing. 180 degree turn shots, a daunting music score, cloning, and sexy Mia Goth, really playing her part to the hilt. One X rated sex shot we could of done without. Brandon Cronenberg (David's) has definitely created something originally appealing and engrossing, but it gets too ludiicrous and crazy in it's second half. Some of the bloodletting scenes, are pretty heavy. Definitely recommended, but be warned.