Reuniting some 20+ plus years after their critically mauled, much forgotten, product-of-its-time comedic thriller Head Over Heels, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Monica Potter, both actors who never really maintained their late 90s, early 2000s hype, topline another comedic thriller of sorts in The Girl in the Pool; except, the comedy here is presumably unintentional.
Breaking no new ground within the subsect of the thriller genre by showcasing that the suburban wealthy families in their perfectly designed McMansions live anything but a perfect life, The Girl in the Pool screenwriter Jackson Reid Williams (here marking his writing debut) offers up a share of plot twists that, whilst ridiculous, continually keep Dakota Gorman‘s feature fascinatingly watchable; if ever a film leaned into being so bad it’s good, this is certainly a contender.
The melodramatic camp factor is more than adhered to across the film’s breezy 89 minutes as Prinze Jr.’s Tom does his best to hide the body of the titular girl in the pool, the result of a presumed murder that he didn’t lay witness to. Just why married businessman Tom has the body of a young female in his pool is because, prior to her death, said girl – Hannah (Gabrielle Haugh) – was his mistress, and taking advantage of his wife (Potter’s Kristen) and kids (Tyler Lawrence Gray and Brielle Barbusca) being out for the day, she thought she’d surprise him for a little birthday tryst.
Oh yeah, it’s Tom’s birthday, so that surprise party Kristen has arranged is going to make it more than a little difficult for him to hide the body. Oh, the delicious ridiculousness Williams has conjured. Unfortunately, as much fun as The Girl in the Pool is having, it’s never the pitch-black comedy it so clearly deserves to be. Tom and Kristen’s marriage being evidently rocky means we’re never quite sure if she even cares about his escalating paranoia, and her father (Kevin Pollack) similarly holds no regard for him, so when Tom is trying to dodge any and all interactions, it only exacerbates his contempt. The comedic latency is ripe, and though there’s no denying this film is funny, the fact that it is aiming for something of serious note undoes such potential.
Whilst so much of the dark satire The Girl in the Pool could have explored remains unrealised, it certainly earns points for the fact that the eventual reveal of just who knocked off Tom’s mistress isn’t easily telegraphed. I may have been rolling my eyes at the dialogue and questionable acting (Prinze Jr. really hasn’t perfected his dramatic flair after all these years) but the continual twist reveals kept me undeniably fixed to the screen – and I suspect it will prove the same for those that opt to partake in this ultimately limp, yet ironically arousing effort that’s best viewed as a parody of the genre over the intended sincere effort it ultimately is.
TWO STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Girl in the Pool is now available on Digital in the United States. An Australian release is yet to be determined.
