Infinity Pool: Brandon Cronenberg's sci-fi resort-thriller pushes the limits of graphic violence and sex
By Thom Ernst
Rating: B-plus
Brandon Cronenberg's latest film, a science-fiction horror called Infinity Pool, moves the director further along the path to autonomy.
Yes, he's been autonomous all along, and Infinity Pool is a work uniquely Brandon. But to bypass all instincts to tough it through a review without acknowledging the Cronenberg family name is like pretending you don't hear the canvasser ringing your doorbell. It's even harder when you recognize the similarities between the two Cronenbergs. If the sensibility is not inherited, then it's influenced.
Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård in Infinity Pool
But even with the instinct to compare, there are paths taken that are singularly Brandon, making Infinity Pool worth viewing.
The story takes place in an upscale resort on the fictional island of La Tolqa. James (Alexander Skarsgård) is an author agonizing over an uninspired attempt at a second book. (The second-book author syndrome should also be a cinema subgenre).
Six years prior, James published a book ignored by the public and panned by critics. Is James a lousy author? Possibly. We don't know much about James' writing. We only know that he married Em (Cleopatra Coleman), the daughter of his publisher, a man who doesn't much care for his daughter's choice of partners.
We're told that the publisher was adamant Em not marry a writer. She disobeys, leaving the question as to whether the marriage is based on love, on need, or on defiance. There is an underlying tension between James and Em. Em appears to be on the verge of breathing her last effort of emotional support, and James stays locked in a spiraling descent of self-pity.
The film opens with the waking couple's polite disagreement on how to spend the day. So, they spend the day apart, which is when James meets Gabi (Mia Goth), his only known fan.
Gabi endears herself to James, and soon two couples become a group of four. Em isn't so much apprehensive of the friendship as she is dismissive. Hardly matters what she thinks when coerced to join James, Gabi, and Gabi's partner, Thresh (Thomas Kretschmann), on an off-the-path day trip. Leaving the resort isn't allowed, as the locals are none too pleased by tourists.
Setting the story on a fictional island diminishes some risk of Cronenberg tripping into xenophobic hysteria. Still, even though the soil is undetermined, there's no masking the fear-the-locals hyperbole.
After a day of sunbathing and reach-around sexual favours, the couples return to the resort. James drives. Before you can say I Saw What You Did, James pulls a Great Gatsby, and the clash between locals and foreigners begins.
This is arthouse vacation horror. As such, Infinity Pool scrapes closer to Spring Breakers than Hostel. But it's also science-fiction, and it's the science fiction that moves the horror beyond shock.
Cronenberg quickly establishes Infinity Pool as being up to pushing the limits with its violence and graphic scenes, nudity, and sex. (Done with prosthetics, no doubt. Hmm, some doubt). But what story Infinity Pool tells is unclear because Cronenberg triggers as many themes as he does reactions.
The cultural divide seems to be a theme, as does poverty. The paradise beyond the resort's protective gates and barbed wire is stricken with poverty. The lagoon the couples escape to has the rusted ruins of abandoned cars, which no one notices.
It leaves Infinity Pool lurking in a White Lotus/Black Mirror realm, if they’d been written by John Fowles and J.G. Ballard, respectively. That's not bad; it's just not specific.
Infinity Pool is directed by Brandon Cronenberg and stars Alexander Skarsgard, Cleopatra Coleman, Mia Goth, and Thomas Kretschmann. It opens in select theatres January 27.