It's hard to feel sorry for James (Alexander Skarsgard) in Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, 2023)Infinity Pool starts in media res as James Foster (Alexander Skarsgard) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) wake up in their hotel room at a posh resort in Li Tolqa, a fictional place that was filmed in Sibenik, Croatia, with some scenes shot in Hungary. They go to grab some breakfast and James soon encounters a fan of his book, Gabi (Mia Goth), and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert). For context, James is a "one book" novelist basically kept by his rich wife, and his one book was published by her father. He and Em have come to Li Tolqa for "inspiration" since he's had writer's block for years. To actually find someone who has read and LIKED James's book stokes his wounded ego, and he and Em decide to hang out with the other couple...to their detriment. They go to the beach, and...let's just say Gabi gets handsy on the beach, and James does not say no. Ugh. He's already such a loser.
Of course, everyone gets too drunk to drive, and James gives it a go, but with the car's electrical system failing, he hits someone driving back to the resort. Gabi and Alban insist that they should not call the police. Nevertheless, James and Em are roused out of bed by the police and taken to the station to sort this mess out. As the trailer gives away, SPOILER, Li Tolqa has some very unique rules, including tourists not leaving the resort compound. If you commit a crime, the punishment is EXECUTION! Yes! I think I would have done my homework before vacationing in this place, but just like everywhere, if you're rich, there's a workaround for that. As Thresh (Thomas Kretschmann), the head of the police, explains to the couple once they admit what happened, if you pay enough money, you can have a double made--someone identical to you. Don't get too hung up on the process by which this happens in this so-called poor country--it's the film's conceit, but an important one. James gets smothered in red goo, and then he wakes to find out there's another one of him, identical in every way.
Once the double is made, the eldest born son of the person who was killed must murder the criminal that did the deed, or its double, while the OG criminal (maybe) must watch himself be stabbed to death. Pretty sick. Once that experience is over, Em wisely wants to get the fu** out of there, but James's passport is missing, so he cannot leave with her. He gives her permission to leave without him, and since she's still utterly destroyed by what she was forced to watch, she's thinking that this place, this marriage, THIS GUY is not for me.
Meanwhile, James seems to have a new lease on life, now that he can murder someone and get away with it. He thinks it's his entrée into a rare club of rich folks, led by Gabi and Alban, who commit crimes and then watch themselves die, repeatedly. He's definitely along for the ride. As the locals celebrate before the monsoon season hits, and most of the resorts shut down, our gang of rich white a-holes wear some pretty freaky masks, and then run around hurting people and committing crimes.
Mia Goth, as Gabi in Infinity Pool, is giving this performance at ELEVEN. Seriously, you know she's kind of terrible, but at the same time she's so magnetic and out of control, she's really the heart of this film. I loved watching her easily convincing James to commit ever increasingly horrible acts of violence, and she is luminescent onscreen.
As a film that centers sex and violence, Infinity Pool is visually gorgeous--largely due to several drug trips the characters take in the course of the film.
Because the film is entirely through James's subjectivity, the line between fantasy and reality is almost always unclear. Add some hallucinogens to the mix, and it's hard to tell who he's having sex with and how. SPOILERS FOLLOW. The nasty rich gang coerces him into participating in the brutal beating of Thresh, the head cop, and he inhales drugs in order to amp up his violence, only to discover that he was actually pounding the crap out of his own double--something Gabi and friends think is funny. "It's just a prank, James." When he runs away from this scenario, and returns to his room at the resort, he hurtles into the bathroom and grabs his passport, which he was hiding taped under the toilet. Yes, he hid his own passport, so he couldn't leave with his wife! Yet, when he finally tries to leave the resort, the nasty rich folks are not having it, and spectators discover that Gabi, et al, have something even more vile in store for him.
Key to enjoying the film's ending is caring one iota about James, which I just never do. He never strays from his pathetic path, and he's in this mess all due to his weak ego, and his fertile desire to belong to the wealthy class. The breastfeeding scene (yes, there is one) suggests that James has been reborn, and in a way, he has been. The question is how many times? Quite frankly, who knows how many doubles are out there by film's end--or who is the OG James. I'm not giving away the ending, but it felt very meh to me, and I'm much more interested in what Gabi's up to in Los Angeles. Still, Infinity Pool is a visually provocative film worth watching, and if you are not too upset by the weirdness, give it a spin. The film is currently streaming on Hulu.
