Rob Brydon stars as an accountant in the midst of a middle-age meltdown, who meets a group of amateur male synchronized swimmers at a local pool. They recognize him as 'one of their own'--looking for an outlet to escape life's pressures, and invite him into the club: rule number one of the swim club is don't talk about the swim club. Another rule is never talk about your private life at the swim club..and that's too bad. Brydon's life is clearly the thread that winds throughout the film, but we learn precious little about his fellow swim mates, and through a few snippets, it sounds like their back stories might have been more interesting than his. The club members range in age from a tattooed 20 something (always running from police) to a 70 something widower with an diverse assortment of characters in between.
Brydon is a rather logical fellow, but leaves his wife after their bratty teen son feeds him false reports of mom having affair/mom wants divorce..mom (Jane Horrocks) seems to be in the dark about Brydon's behavior changes. And change he does from the fellow who calculated the risk of everything to one willing to work against odds for a competition the team enters.
I imagine some will label this sort of a 'Full Monty in the pool'..but it isn't because there is not quite the camaraderie or comedy of that earlier film. The sight of the men, none in Olympic shape, trying to learn the finer points of water ballet is amusing, but don't look for laugh out loud funny. The performances by Brydon, Rupert Graves, Adeel Akhtar, Jim Carter, and others was top notch, and I thought some of the camera work (from city scenes that accentuate the 'one-ness' of everyone to the underwater shots) was pretty good.
It's a movie that's hard to classify..I'll just say it's about changes life hands us, changes we make on our own, and taking chances. Although I wouldn't say it was a must-see, it was an enjoyable film with a few tugs on the heart strings.
