Poolman Review
Poolman (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Chris Pine, written by Ian Gotler and Chris Pine and starring Chris Pine, Annette Bening, DeWanda Wise, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Danny DeVito, Stephen Tobolowsky, John Ortiz, Hollis W. Chambers, Christopher Chen, Laurent Schwaar, Robert Pine, Clancy Brown and Ray Wise.
The new “comedy,” Poolman, is Chris Pine’s “baby” and he’s more than welcome to take almost all of the credit for the disappointing results produced by this film that he co-wrote, starred in and directed. It’s certainly not the fault of any of the film’s superlative supporting cast members that the L.A.-centered film falters.
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Poolman is a weird idea for a movie that stumbles right out the gate. A close-up of Chris Pine’s feet as he’s cleaning a pool starts the picture and is followed by a scene with his character, Darren Barrenman, having sex with an older woman named Susan (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Darren begins bragging or whining to Erin Brockovich at some point early on too. He’s writing Brockovich a letter because Darren, too, aspires to be an activist. These are all ideas that don’t come together to form a definitively compelling plot and the movie falls apart even more as it drags on.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is a great actress but it’s hard to know why she accepted her underwritten role in this film but her miscasting is a small flaw here when compared to the pair of characters played by Danny DeVito and Annette Bening who portray Jack and Diane. They console Darren who goes to the local court to make a case for changing the local bus schedule. The local politician, Stephen Toronkowski (Stephen Tobolowsky), doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the wild and erratic Darren. Later on, Tobolowsky dons women’s clothing, a wig and makeup and if you make it that far into the film, I congratulate you.
DeWanda Wise plays the mysterious June Del Rey who seems to be on Darren’s side from the out set but has some secrets of her own as the movie unveils a layered, but flat, story line that takes Darren into an investigation that leads some shocking places that wind up having Darren cite the 1970’s film, Chinatown, which is probably an inspiration for the movie’s screenplay.
Pine was obviously also inspired by The Big Lebowski but the Coen Brothers and Jeff Bridges are geniuses that could pull off something like what Poolman wants to do. Unfortunately, Pine is a novice filmmaker despite his experience as an actor. To get Annette Bening to participate in this new mess of a movie is Pine’s greatest accomplishment. Bening looks like she’s doing a friend a favor here and although she doesn’t give a particularly bad performance, this is a career-low for the distinguished Oscar nominee.
Poolman has a couple of smart ideas sprinkled in regarding corruption and the lengths politicians and authoritative figures could go to get their way. Unfortunately, the movie is way too offbeat and quirky beyond a reasonable doubt with Pine overacting and under acting at times with pretty weak results all around. I liked DaWanda Wise who did a nice job and emerges with the only performance that is really worthy of attention in this jumbled mess of a movie.
Back to the scene where Tobolowsky dons drag. He does this for a show his character is participating in. He plays a famous television character in this play and Pine’s Darren comes to admire him even though Darren has come to confront the politician about another issue. The plot twists start building from there and they seem that they’re being made up on the spot. Yet, there’s a touching moment between Pine and Tobolowsky here that, unfortunately, gets lost in the cracks as the movie keeps haphazardly unveiling story lines that don’t feel genuine or interesting.
Chris Pine is a very talented performer in films other than Poolman. The fact that this new noir-ish spoof got made is an accomplishment in and of itself. You could see Pine pitching this premise and convincing the actors to appear in the picture but, in the end, the movie doesn’t carry the weight it should. While it’s great to see Jennifer Jason Leigh acting again, I never thought I’d see her play a slim part where she had sex with Chris Pine of all people. The Hateful Eight was almost 10 years ago. Poolman should, if nothing else, remind Hollywood to use Jennifer Jason Leigh again in roles that are actually worthy of her talents.
Though Poolman is ultimately a major disappointment, one has to admire Pine’s audacity to get the project made and one could also respect that a studio released the film theatrically after it received mostly scathing reviews. Pine’s film is, quite simply, a meandering mess that ultimately is one of the lesser recent efforts to utilize a fine ensemble cast. View it at your own risk.
Rating: 4.5/10
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