In a cold harsh reality, nobody wants to face anything that gets hurled at them. They’d rather stick to dreams for some reason. Or just imagining things until they become a reality. But sometimes that causes people to go out of control. Sometimes that causes people to get issues that cause them to turn uncontrollably violent. So goes the story of Anna (Laura Tremblay), who is struggling to adjust to reality. She finds her solace in prostituting herself in her apartment and hanging out at a shooting range where she fires her pistol at targets. One of her biggest issues is her anger which only gets worse through getting stress at her simple office job. After an assault in the workplace with a stapler, Anna stays at her mother’s place where she can be watched more carefully. But even that’s not enough, as she continues on with her life, her violent tendencies only get worse. Using her handgun and imagining things beyond her control, it isn’t long before she gives in to the rage and starts killing off her clients. Eventually, she’ll be looking to a resignation soon as her employers Marcus (Mark Nuttall) and Priya (Pardeep Bassi) expect her to leave town for her own safety. Especially after Marcus gives her a good bruising and her life is more in danger. Throughout the film Anna narrates her point of view and how she truly feels inside. As Anna goes further into escaping reality, one of her attempts is submerging herself in the bathtub where she feels she’s sinking to the bottom of the sea. Aside from letting her body be used by clientele and the mind, Anna also talks to a counsellor, attends a support group for other people with anger problems, and hangs out with her family on occasion. But it’s not very easy to do anything in her case.
It’s not often I come across a plot as profound as this. The film is a wonderful twisted story about a determined woman who’s willing to get what she wants. Admittedly, she reminds me of one, maybe several people I once knew. The majority of the characters are very average with quiet like voices, except for Anna and a few others who contrast with sharp personalities. Colouring in the movie is mostly dark, but I love the use of shades of red and black during some of the dark and disturbing scenes. It’s a good disturbing film that goes at an unusually slow pace but is at the right speed to make you feel uncomfortable as the intensity sparks up out of nowhere.
Drowning will be premiering at ICFF on June 15, 2:00 pm at the TIFF Bell Lightbox
The sea of strangeness that the film submerges the viewer into is Anna’s normal. She must feel as if everything is going on around her while she is removed from it all – kind of like living underwater. I don’t know if Anna gives in to her rages or not. Its tricky to determine what is real and what is not. We only know that at the end of the movie, she is knocking on the door and she is making her own decisions about herself.