What if the ultimate punishment could be avoided for the right price? That's the central question presented in Infinity Pool, the latest body horror-tinged thriller from writer and director Brandon Cronenberg. The story takes plenty of depraved twists and turns, as it explores the corrupting power of wealth. However, it doesn't always hold onto that thread, and tends to lose its way the further it progresses.
Infinity Pool stars Alexander Skarsgard as James Foster, a writer who is in a deep slump. His debut novel was released years earlier and he has yet to write a follow-up. In an attempt to find some inspiration, Foster and his wealthy wife Emma (Cleopatra Coleman) take a vacation to the fictional country of La Tolqa, where they stay at a high end resort that remains segregated from the surrounding area.
It's here where James and Emma meet Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert), a couple who frequently find themselves in La Tolqa. After convincing James and Emma to leave the resort grounds, James finds himself in a terrible situation as he is arrested for a crime and told the punishment is death. However, in its biggest sci-fi element, it is revealed that for a price, an exact double can be made to take James's place in the execution chamber (for a hefty price).
From there, Infinity Pool dives into some timely yet heady themes. Particularly, the movie looks at wealth through a lens of unreality. The further down the rabbit hole James gets with his new, very rich friends, the more surreal everything begins to feel, until his experience becomes dark, disturbing, and intensely grotesque. The criticism of the wealth bubble is certainly a noble one, though a bit ironic coming from the son of a famous movie director. The problem is that Infinity Pool takes its surreal, nightmarish story to the extreme, losing track of what it is trying to say along the way.
There's no denying that Brandon Cronenberg draws a lot of inspiration from his father David's body of work. However, the younger Cronenberg tends to explore much darker regions and gets even more extreme in his depictions of sex and violence. Infinity Pool is no exception, with some of the most explicit displays of depravity audiences may see all year. The images aren't the problem, though; it's the underlying themes driving them where things get muddy. James himself is not wealthy ("he married rich," his wife jokes earlier in the story), and so it's all the more understandable that he falls down a deep hole of hedonism driven mostly by Gabi egging him on along the way. Yet when the time comes for the story to take a sinister turn, it doesn't feel entirely earned, nor is it entirely clear what the film wants to convey.
The idea of isolation through wealth is broadly represented by the resort itself. Otherwise mundane vacation scenes like a yoga class in a grassy field or people walking down the beach are literally turned upside down and accompanied by a sinister droning score. Then there are the resort activities and amenities presented by the staff. There is a brief mention of a La Tolqan holiday at the beginning of the film, but from there, the only indication of that tradition is the ceremonial markings each La Tolqan citizen is wearing. The resort is much more concerned with having its staff appropriate other cultures, like engaging in literal orientalism in its Chinese restaurant or presenting Indian dance classes. Again, though, this pointed criticism of resort vacationers closing themselves off from the local culture gets lost in the mix.
Beyond its class criticism, Infinity Pool tries to present an alluring question about identity and the self but doesn't quite hit the mark. At one point, a character bluntly asks how James could know whether the real him was killed and whether he is just the copy. Of course, this question somewhat falls by the wayside as the story progresses, though the intention may be for it to linger in the background as James piles up more disturbing and questionable experiences.
Skarsgard's performance as James is multilayered, and the actor sells the character's relatively quick descent into depravity well, but the real standout performance here comes from Mia Goth as Gabi. Goth has already made her mark as a rising horror star in Ti West's X and Pearl, and in Infinity Pool she displays her ability to pivot from understated innocence to stark raving aggression. Gabi serves as the main antagonist of the film, continuously tempting James into sin and pulling him deeper into a world to which he can never fully belong.
As solid as some of the performances are though, what is really going to be the sticking point for those seeing this movie is the grotesquery that Cronenberg layers into nearly every moment, particularly later in the film. There are brief and lingering looks at distorted body parts and faces in one drug-fueled mid-movie sequence, as well as an early squeamish moment of not one, but two close-up shots of bodily fluids hitting the ground. On top of these uncomfortable scenes are the shocking moments of violence, which often erupt in a cacophony of screams and laughter that obliterates the quieter moments leading up to it. If Cronenberg's goal was to create an uncomfortable viewing atmosphere, then mission accomplished, but how effectively these shocking (and frankly disgusting) scenes drive the story or convey the movie's themes is questionable.
If anything, Infinity Pool imperfectly skewers the lives of the ultra-wealthy, depicting a distinct lack of respect and tact that only millions of dollars could buy. Unfortunately, the movie goes so abstract and gross in its back half that its themes and questions about morality and identity take a backseat to the extreme imagery. By the final scene, there's not that much to like about Infinity Pool, and that may be the point. However, it doesn't make for a satisfying story, or one that even sticks to what it wants to say very well.
Infinity Pool is now in theaters.
Infinity Pool
Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, Infinity Pool is a horror/sci-fi film That follows a couple vacationing on a mysterious island resort. While enjoying their time on the idyllic island, they soon meet a mysterious woman named Gabi, who lures them outside the resort grounds and into a world of hedonistic pleasures and violence. However, when they find themselves at the center of a tragic accident, they come face to face with a zero-tolerance policy for crime where execution - or worse, may be the punishment.