The best part of "The Drowning" is the stunning photography of New England and the outstanding selection of locations of picturesque natural environments and beautifully preserved buildings from the early twentieth century. But the characters who inhabit this world were a truly nasty lot. The result was an extremely unpleasant film viewing experience.
In the bonus track of the DVD, the film artists were earnest as they described their intention of exploring the dark side of human personality. The screenwriter discussed how his goal was to explore "the difference between guilt and conscience" from the perspective of a psychologist whose professional opinion resulted in institutionalizing an eleven-year-old boy.
After the boy is released as a young adult, the psychologist saves the young man from drowning in a suicide attempt. The film's major thrust is on what is depicted as a highly unethical relationship of the psychologist, Tom Seymour, and the young man, Danny Miller. The relationship transcends all bounds of professional propriety between a doctor and a patient.
While the filmmakers wanted to dramatize "characters on the edge," it was never entirely credible that, as a successful therapist and bestselling author, Tom Seymour would have spent a single minute as Danny's therapist, given the role that he played at a major crossroads in the patient's past. It was also not believable that Tom would not provide at least a basic background about the troubled youth to his wife, Lauren, at a time when Danny was essentially stalking her.
The film's director, Bette Gordon, likens the character developments of The Drowning" to the classic novel "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Unfortunately, the film viewer only saw the "Mr. Hyde" persona of these characters. As a result, "The Drowning" failed to offer insights into the existential issues that the filmmakers wanted to raise. In the final analysis, there really wasn't much depth to the characters.
This film presented a disturbingly negative view of psychologists, who are invested with the power of making life-changing decisions on people's lives through the legal system, drink their lives away in bars, become enmeshed with their patients in an unhealthy way, and capitalize on their interactions with fragile, damaged patients in bestselling books of case studies of psychological trauma.
This is clinically depressing stuff indeed!
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