Film Review: INFINITY POOL (2023): Brandon Cronenberg’s Daring Science Fiction Horror Film is Emotionally Empty but Impossible to Ignore

Infinity Pool Review

Infinity Pool (2023) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg and starring Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman, Thomas Kretschmann, Amanda Brugel, John Ralston, Caroline Boulton, Jeff Ricketts, Amar Bukvic, Anita Major and Roderick Hill.

Brandon Cronenberg is truly his father’s son. Brandon’s dad is, of course, David Cronenberg and there are striking similarities between Brandon’s new film, Infinity Pool, and movies that his dad made such as Dead Ringers, Crimes of the Future and Crash. Still, Brandon’s new film is extraordinarily unique in what it tries to accomplish. Brandon may be borrowing themes that his dad’s films touched upon in Infinity Pool but Brandon has some fascinating ideas of his own that are only undermined by the new film’s lack of relatable emotions from its main characters. But, nobody said a movie has to be relatable in order to be a good film.

Set on the fictional island of La Tolqa, Mia Goth stars in the film as the film’s most intriguing character, Gabi. She is the reason that Infinity Pool will get under your skin even though the movie’s male star, Alexander Skarsgård turns in some of the most challenging work of his very respectable career. Skarsgård plays a failed writer named James Foster who is married to Em (the terrific Cleopatra Coleman). It turns out Em married him to spite her father who warned her not to marry a writer. Em has been carrying the financial weight in their marriage. When the blonde haired Gabi and her husband (Jalil Lespert) begin to engage with the couple, things begin to get very interesting. Gabi initially tells James that she loved his book and to his surprise, he begins to feel a bit better about himself.

The next part of the plot is straight out of the recent Jessica Chastain/Ralph Fiennes movie, The Forgiven. James hits a passerby with a car late at night and apparently the man who the car hits dies. Then, the movie takes a turn where Gabi warns James of the consequences that will be thrust upon him if he turns himself in. It eventually doesn’t matter that James flees the scene because he is caught by the authorities who make him sign an agreement in order to have a chance of getting “acquitted” of the crime. Money must be paid and James has to be cloned so that the powers that be can have someone to blame the death that resulted from the car accident on. Yeah, so now it starts to get a little bit creative.

The next section of the movie is a bit Crimes of the Future meets Crash. The clone of James who will take the rap for the death must be put to death and James and Em have to watch the gruesome act. A young boy stabs the cloned James in a gruesome way. After witnessing the terrifying murder, James can’t locate his passport and flee the island with Em and he ends up staying behind and involving himself with a cult that includes unconventional characters like the oddball Jennifer (Amanda Brugel) and other folks who seem to have a lot in common and would definitely give the cult of car crash obsessed crazies from Crash a run for its money.

Goth takes the opportunity to camp it up and runs with it here. You can’t take your eyes off her whenever she appears on screen. Her best scene comes when Gabi takes control of the situation that is proposed in the movie’s latter stages and ends up reading aloud a harsh review that was written about James’ one published book. There are also sex scenes between her and Skarsgård’s James that will prove to be both provocative and disturbing in nature to watch.

Brandon Cronenberg has created a picture that leads to a horrifically twisted series of events in which it appears that the people in the cult featured in the picture have been cloned more than once but I’ve already said too much by revealing this possibility. Skarsgård carries a lot of the film’s responsibilities on his back and although he’s occasionally shown up a bit by some of Goth’s breathtaking overacting, we try to root for James. Cronenberg makes it hard, though, because we never know if James is the first James or the clone. The way Skarsgård acts suggests one possibility but the movie also hints at other potential scenarios.

While Infinity Pool is very violent, it is hard to look away from the screen. Without a central side to take at first, the picture’s characters just come off as plain strange at times. Yet, we keep watching them despite this fact. This film also has a sex scene or two with fine lighting and cinematography that could remind one of those sex sequences in David Lynch’s Lost Highway and they still have Brandon Cronenberg’s unique touch as well.

Brandon Cronenberg’s movie would have been stronger with more heart put into the story line. If we felt that James truly loved his wife, it would have certainly helped us care more about his very unusual predicament. Despite the movie’s flaws, though, Infinity Pool could appeal to audiences seeking something in the vein of the legendary filmmaker David Cronenberg’s films. Brandon has become a major voice in horror/science fiction cinema and this movie is interesting enough to warrant a recommendation.

Rating: 7/10

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