Swimmers

Swimmers is a wonderful film. The story really pulls you in and is very touching. The audience is able to identify with many of the characters since common human strengths and faults are expressed in this film. The acting is superb; the watermen characters are right on. Emma is an endearing character and made me teary-eyed throughout the movie. The friendship between Emma and Meryl is as believable as it is sweet. Anyone from a small town will be able to identify with the story of Swimmers. Other parts of this film that I really enjoyed were the scenes of the water. The shots of the water and the boats were beautiful.

Will (Robert Knott) enters a shop and doesn't have enough for his beer, so he takes it out of a jar on the counter that is there to pay for his daughter Emma's (Tara Devon Gallagher) ear operation. This is just after he screamed at his wife Julia (Cherry Jones) for putting the jars out in the first place. Next we see him getting some work, and the first place he goes is to get more beer. This time, he buys one of those plastic roses to give Julia, expecting a sexual payoff.

This is the kind of guy Will is. He is out of work leaving Julia to figure out how to pay the bills and get her daughter an operation while he gets drunk. We all know the type.

This is an interesting picture of working class families trying to make it in the face of adversity. There are and will be many more like this as we get through our current economic crisis. People start coming apart at the seams, while others find solace and strength where they can.

Emma turns to Merrill (Sarah Paulson), who has problems of her own from a childhood incident when she was Emma's age. Paulson is fantastic, and really makes this movie.

Jones is equally brilliant as she tries to hold everything together with the drinking, and philandering, and lack of money.

There isn't a pretty solution, and there is no FX, violence, or a lot of nudity to distract you. You just have to sit back and take in the problems of everyday people and hope for the best.

We just saw the movie by accident. We went to the theater to see BI2 and saw that Swimmers was playing. We had the thrill of meeting Doug Sadler (writer & director) and Robert Knott. Since we live across the Chesapeake Bay from the Eastern Shore, where the movie is set, we are familiar with the area, the lifestyles, the economics and such. Swimmers captures the intensity of the Chesapeake Bay watermen in the declining estuary, and the rhythm and flow of the water and the people that make their living on it. I was immediately sucked into the intensity of the movie, and the innerness of the people. The acting is so good and the filming, timing, sights and sounds are so well done, that I forget I was watching a movie and felt that I was sitting next to over looking over the shoulder of the person (actor) in the scene. The subject is intense, and the plot is the personalities of the family members, their thoughts and their interactions. It's a movie that will peel back the onion of your memories and deep personal feelings. It's definitely not a feel good movie. It's much more a feel what is very real about you and people you are closest to movie.

Despite the best efforts of Hoolywood...you occasionally still see a compelling drama, and this is one. Swimmers reveals some very universal themes, familiar to most of us who have ever lost a job, had a sick child or difficult relationships (surely this is nearly everyone!) The small town setting is wonderful and the economic plight of the oysterman is painful to watch...the disappearing way of life that is so common in many rural areas.

I was stunned by the actors performances and the beauty of the setting juxtaposed with the pain in their lives. REally, a great story, with a lot to say about us.

Oh yeah....Cherry Jones (2005 Tony Award Winner!!!) was awesome in this film.....but she was NOT the best performance! This one is worth your time and effort.

Swimmers is a lovely, poetic movie about a young girl who needs an operation and the impact of the crisis on her family which does not have health insurance. The script touches on many universal themes: family, friendship, depleted fishing grounds, health care, problem drinking. The performances are wonderful, especially Cherry Jones, Robert Knott, and Tara Devon Gallagher. I saw Swimmers at the Seattle International Film Festival and I strongly recommend it. It just won the Portugese film festival so I am hopeful it will get a distributor as it deserves to be seen by a wide audience. Swimmers is reminiscent of Tender Mercies and Robert Knott's performance reminds me of Robert Duvall's in Tender Mercies--a huge compliment as Tender Mercies is one of my favorite movies. See Swimmers if you get the chance.