The Swimmer (1968)

The Swimmer is both a melancholy look at a man's life that is falling apart and an unsentimental look at the pitfalls of nostalgia.

Based on a short story by John Cheever, the plot centres on Ned Merrill (a buff looking Burt Lancaster), a middle aged ad man who decides to swim his way home via his neighbour's backyard pools. Both the day and Ned's mood start off bright, but as each pool brings up people he hasn't seen for a while, and the memories associated with them things take a dark turn. Gradually we learn more about Ned, and he learns some painful lessons about himself.

The script is very talky, but it is dialogue packed with irony and double meaning. Director Frank Perry (with one uncredited scene helmed by Sydney Pollock) has plenty of cinematic style with some fast cuts and odd angles. The occasional shift into soft focus seems to be signifying wistful yearning for the past. But it always resolves into something downbeat, and there is always something dark behind the facile grins.

While The Swimmer starts off in a realistic fashion, the film gradually takes on a more dreamlike and allegorical quality, enhanced by the stiff detached delivery of some of the lines. As the disconnect between surface appearances and reality becomes wider, day turns to evening, sunshine to rain, happiness to sadness.