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| Image Via Quiver Distribution |
On July 26, 2024, Quiver Distribution released ‘The Girl in the Pool’, which has received a mixed reception from critics. In the film, a man’s life becomes complicated when he discovers the corpse of his mistress in the pool on his birthday. His decision to hide the truth from his family results in a night that threatens to ruin his life. The ensemble cast includes Freddie Prinze Jr., Monica Potter, Tyler Lawrence Grey, Kevin Pollak, Gabrielle Haugh, Michael Sirow, and Brielle Barbusca. But what did the critics say?
Marya E. Gates of RogerEbert.com writes, “What could have been a deliciously dark satire, instead remains in the liminal space known as aggressively average.” Concluding, “Haugh's Hannah seems to exist solely to look hot in a bikini and spout red herring-laden dialogue. The always solid Potter adds a steely gravitas to what mostly amounts to a stock character in Kristen. I kept waiting for her to get a great monologue moment like she does in the similarly lurid thriller "Along Came a Spider." Alas, it never comes. Rosie is similarly underwritten, reduced to a pastiche of Gen-Z stereotypes, although Barbusca does her best to overcome the trite material with some hilarious line readings.”
Randy Myers of San Jose Mercury News was less impressed, stating, “Freddie Prinze Jr.’s growing-more-desperate performance as a cheating family man who stuffs his murdered mistress’ bloody body into a pool storage bin minutes before his surprise birthday party gets sprung keeps this dark comedic thriller afloat. What manages to sink it happens when the screenplay takes a radical tonal shift that doesn’t produce the emotional punch it thinks it’s earned. For the first two thirds, “The Girl in the Pool” leans into genre inclinations and gives us loads of suspects: a drunken, flirtatious invitee who paws at Tom’s (Prinze Jr.) and his angry wife Kirsten’s (Monica Potter) model-looking son; a suspicious father-in-law (Kevin Pollak) and so on. The red herrings don’t net much of anything, except making us realize that Prinze Jr. and Potter (seen together in the 2001 rom-com “Head Over Heels”) deserve better than this.”
Courtney Howard of Variety notes, “Regardless of whether we’re supposed to chuckle at our hero’s crumbling sanity or empathize with his strife, it’s empty-calorie viewing designed for viewers to either mock or embrace its hijinks.” Continuing, “His plight unfolds in a non-linear structure, switching back and forward on the timeline. While it’s never confusing, these flashbacks mostly provide cringe-worthy details (like hearing Thomas’ incel-ish best friend call him a “Beta” after not breaking the annoying neighbor’s camera drone) rather than add clarity to the present, which can also be fairly outlandish considering they quote Gandhi and say Prinze is “like Vin Diesel with hair.” Audiences will feel their bodies recoiling, hearing Thomas and Hannah’s smooching sessions punctuated by the actors’ hilariously loud lip-smacking. And superfluous events, like Hannah’s home tour where she slinks around the master bedroom and closet in her skivvies while destroying Kristen’s clothes and messing with her jewelry, call the film’s perspective into question as Thomas has no clue she ever did such devious things.”
Todd Jorgenson of Cinemalogue says, “The intentionality of the camp is the only compelling mystery in this ridiculous thriller about a descent into insanity, one contrivance at a time.” Adding, “His birthday is hardly a cause for celebration for Thomas (Freddie Prinze Jr.), who finishes hiding the body of his deceased mistress just before his wife (Monica Potter) throws him a surprise party with dozens of guests. Clumsily concealing his dirty secret, as well as resolving the circumstances behind the puzzling death, triggers a harrowing downward spiral. Stretching a thin premise to feature length, the film feels too detached from reality — with a morally ambiguous protagonist — to elicit many laughs or chills.”
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