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A man who is suffering a mid-life crisis finds new meaning in his life as part of an all-male, middle-aged, amateur synchronized swimming team.
Oliver Parker is a British director known for… well, variety, I guess. His credits run the gamut from classical adaptations (William Shakespeare’s “Othello,” Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest”) to irreverent comedies (“Dad’s Army,” “St. Trinian’s”) and action blockbusters (“Johnny English Reborn,” which despite its lackluster nature, shelled in over $160 million on a $45 million budget).
The quality of Parker’s haphazard output is uneven at best: the cheeky “An Ideal Husband” is arguably his best picture so far, though its reliance on slapstick and clichés makes it far from perfect. His case is less of an “ooh, I can’t wait what the director will pull out of his sleeve next” (see: fellow Brit filmmaker/experimentalist Michael Winterbottom) and more of a “bloody hell, let’s hope he gets it right this time.” With his latest feature, the lighthearted comedy “Swimming With Men,” Parker doesn’t exactly hit it out of the ballpark, nor does he create a complete mess. Like the synchronized swimming it depicts, this film is equally difficult to love or hate.
Eric Scott (Rob Brydon) is going through midlife crisis. He is stuck in a loveless, paranoid marriage to a politician – until he catches her with another man, sort of. His 9-5 job has become a monotonous blur, his sole respite being the swimming pool he visits after work. One day he sees a group of similarly middle-aged men practicing some strange routine in the pool. Cheeky and profane, they welcome him into their “club,” a “place to forget the world”, sensing “kinship.”
Next thing he knows, Eric is deeply integrated, the swimming sessions with those men having rapidly become the highlight of his life. Akin to “Fight Club,” this group has its own set of rules (“What goes in the pool, stays in the pool – first rule of Swim Club,” says Eric after a particularly unpleasant encounter with excrement). Also reminiscent of the brutal exorcising of demons in Fincher’s classic, this Swim Club is a way for dentists, construction workers, thieves and accountants to, well, be free. In a somewhat unlikely turn of events, it all leads to a world championship in Milan. Whether the men win, lose, or the team spirit prevails, I will let you discover.
The “initiation” sequence is amusing, with the crew of male swimmers surrounding a hapless Eric and smoothly blending him into their synchronized routine. The scene where the men perform at a birthday party resorts to the aforementioned potty humor but still manages to elicit a few chuckles. There are several funny quips and one-liners. The whole thing has that cozy British vibe; think “The Full Monty,” but with swimming instead of stripping.
That said, quite a few of the jokes also fall flat. Though friendship, kindness, and inclusion are commendable (if well-worn) central themes, “Swimming With Men” does next to nothing to truly explore sexual politics – a bit of a letdown for a film whose main focus is purportedly on subverting modern masculinity. Ironically, its message seems to be to embrace one’s masculinity as opposed to examining it. A lot of jokes have a very faint homophobic whiff to them. Its female cast is largely underdeveloped. “Swimming With Men” doesn’t say anything new about the woes of middle-age, nor does it take any surprising turns. I could delve even deeper into its complete lack of subversion and how it, in fact, does the opposite and reinforces the stereotypes it attempts to discard, but the film is just too weightless and inconsequential for such hefty deliberations.
Don’t jump into this pool hoping to be blown away. If you keep your expectations reigned in, you’re in for a comforting couple of laps in pleasantly warm water. This film is like having a good ol’ cuppa – you know exactly what to expect, but it still gives you the fuzzies. Perhaps Oliver Parker has finally found his niche. It’s not a wildly impressive one, but hell, we didn’t expect much, right?
In theaters Friday, December 7th
