Review of The Midnight Swim (2015) by Hugues B — 26 Apr 2015

Title: Failed on all counts, except for casting and acting. No interesting developments, no interesting family secrets revealed, and I missed creepiness all over.

Saw this at the IMAGINE film festival 2015 in Amsterdam. It missed all potential chances to be interesting, in spite of the many recommendations one can derive from the synopsis on the festival website. The introductory talk of the festival programmer was also very positive, which fully explains the even-so positive tone on the website. But I disagree.

Something happens all the time, so the movie is not boring on itself. But the proceedings disappointed and are only mildly interesting. I did not notice anything noteworthy in the controversies between the sisters and/or hidden problems with their mother. Maybe that sort of relational drama is important for romcom fans, but not for me. Many seemingly deep symbolisms about the "seven sisters" constellation, with one star hardly visible (like the youngest sister who is filming all this, and her sisters does not really count her for full as we find out), the birds that fly themselves to death against the window (one each day), and so on. All of that are attempts to suggest some hidden meanings, but it went all past me.

Anyway, the festival audience thought not much of this film. It ranked lowest for the audience award with average score 4.90 out of 10. To add insult to injury: I'm wondering who filmed the final scene, as I don't think this is a "found footage" category of film.