O Afogamento

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 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.

RELEASED IN 2016 and directed by Bette Gordon, "The Drowning" focuses on a child psychologist (Josh Charles) whose life is disrupted by the release of a young man from reformatory (Avan Jogia). The doctor's analysis helped confine the kid a dozen years earlier and now the youth seems to show up everywhere and it's irritating; worse, his wife seems smitten with him (Julia Stiles). John C. McGinley plays the lawyer who prosecuted the kid while Robert Clohessy appears as the aloof, irate father.

This is a melancholy psychological drama with crime thriller elements. The focus is on the drama and the remorseful reflections thereof. All aspects of filmmaking are top-notch, including the convincing acting and well-scripted dialogues. The story's unpredictable: Just when you think something's going to happen, it doesn't (and vice versa). Some people refer to the unexpected climax as a "twist," but it's really more of a desperate solution.

The problem viewers have with this movie (besides the lack of thrills and explosions) is that not everything's spelled out; you have to read in between the lines. It's a study on the nature of good and evil within the context of human nature. Can a person be "evil" as a kid? If so, can he be reformed? Can a "good" therapist have elements of evil in his psyche? Did he have to deal with the same evil when he was a kid? What's the secret of overcoming it? The movie even throws in the enigmatic female attraction to "bad boys."

My title blurb reveals that there are similarities to "Good Will Hunting" (1997), but I'd watch this one over that overrated flick any day. Yet the script needed fine-tuned to drive home the movie's points. As it is, they're elusive; and this frustrates some viewers. But post-reflection reveals a lot.

THE FILM RUNS 95 minutes and was shot on the coast of Connecticut (New London, I'm guessing), as well as New York City. WRITER: Stephen Molton & Frank Pugliese wrote the screenplay based on Pat Barker's novel.

GRADE: B-/C+

There is only one good thing about this movie and that is Avan Jogia, he is stunning to look at and a superb actor. He owns the screen. Unfortunately the story complete garbage. I'm not really sure why or how it actually got produced!

I wouldn't recommend it.

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.