The Drowning

This movie is better than the low star reviews. There's little action and motivations are not immediately clear, but by the end they become perfectly clear.

We're all capable of evil, of being manipulated. And we're also capable of doing evil to protect ourselves, our egos, andour families.

The evil in some is just more evident. Oh and when you contrive to manipulate and hurt others, you may finally meet your match.

You have seen this cookie cutter paint by numbers 'mystery/thriller'a million times. Manipulative genius sociopath who has everyone conned, who gaslights everyone because they are too stupid to know any better. A creepy stalker who breaks into people's homes threatens them and gets them to apologize to him and/or gets the people he threatens arrested. This is a tired worn out boring story. It was tired and worn out 50 years ago. Every single stereotypic angle from every single movie remotely like this was thrown in. It is the stupidest most frustrating rich white people doing the dumbest things imaginable movie you will ever watch. It's so aggressively dull it's a new art form.

This movie is all about wannabe and turns out not to be about much of anything. I'm a big fan of both Josh Charles and Julia Stiles, and can't believe what ended up on film is what they signed up,for. Stiles is completely wasted in this part. The plot is as nonsensical as the ending. Do not waste your time.

Psychologist Tom Seymour (Josh Charles) saves Danny Miller (Avan Jogia) from drowning and later realizes Danny was the 11-yr old that his psycho analysis helped put Danny in prison for killing an elderly woman. Danny got an early release and blames Tom for ruining his life. The problem now is that Danny keeps showing up everywhere Tom and his wife Lauren (Julia Stiles) happen to be.

We keep thinking that Tom will re-look at the case to see if he missed something 10 Years ago because Danny keeps saying he never killed anyone. Tom checks with the lawyer who helped prosecute Danny. Danny is now known as Ian. Lauren is smitten with Ian and this disturbs Tom and he isn't sure what to do, but doesn't tell Lauren his concerns about Ian um….. Danny. We sometimes think that Lauren isn't too supportive of Tom, but she doesn't know what he is going through.

Notables: John C. McGinley as Teddy the lawyer who prosecuted Danny 10-Years ago; Robert Clohessy as Danny's father.

Production-wise and the acting all around are very good and we become like Tom……. wary of everything.

The twist in here isn't really a twist, but more a solution to Tom's problem. Wait for it, but this is slow going because the script sends Tom (and us) in many directions. Be patient and you will be rewarded as we were. So wait for it. Ha! (7/10)

Violence; Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes.

Possibly the worst film ever made. Poor plot, poor script and unrealistic characters and behaviours. Avoid. The fact that I have to write five lines about this drivel offends me, but if it means that someone else doesn't waste 90 minutes of their life watching it then I guess it is worth it.