Mark Reviews Movies: INFINITY POOL

Infinity Pool, NEON

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 26, 2023

At some point during an unspecified future and within a fictional country, people can get away with any kind of crime—as long as said person possesses the money to pay for and the moral flexibility to agree to a rather curious procedure. That's the basic premise of Infinity Pool, writer/director Brandon Cronenberg's provocatively imagined and executed tale about a very specific and disturbing kind of excess.

If the film itself is often inscrutable and excessive, that's an unavoidable side effect of something reaching into the deeper, darker parts of the human mind. It's neither pretty nor completely comprehensible, but one doubts Cronenberg wants it to be either of those things, anyway.

The plot is relatively simple, although it has a hook that's familiar but, because of the way in which the filmmaker uses it, bold. We meet James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård), the author of exactly one novel that was published six years ago. He's been looking for inspiration ever since, it seems, and his newest experiment to get over writer's block, his impostor syndrome, or whatever it is that's preventing him from starting his new book is a vacation. It's to a fancy resort in the country of La Tolqa with his well-to-do wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman), who also happens to be the daughter of an influential publisher.

The place is idyllic and exclusive—in that the resort is one of a series of fenced-in compounds. The rest of the country is so impoverished that officials dissuade foreigners from leaving and hotel staff don't allow guests to go beyond the compound's borders. If one imagines that Cronenberg is foreshadowing some terror or horror to come from the locals when James and/or his wife and/or some others venture outside the resort, that almost certainly seems to be what he wants us to think.

Things aren't nearly that simplistic, though. There are others who do take a trip outside the compound with the writer and Em. They're Gabi (Mia Goth), an actor, and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert). Gabi introduces herself to James, announcing that she's a huge fan his book, and that little act of bolstering his ego gets James to agree to a road trip, in a car rented from a staff member, to have a picnic with the other couple.

All of this seems as if it's setting up one or two potential stories and conflicts, especially when James doesn't refuse a very forward bit of reaching-around from Gabi when they're alone, an in a way, Cronenberg is establishing those specific things. He's simply not focusing on them for matters of plot but for some insight into these characters. We see James give in a bit too easily to temptation, while also refusing to assert himself in any way, and as for Gabi, well, she's about as free-spirited as can be, while also ensuring that she's in control of as much as possible.

The real gimmick, though, comes when James, driving down a dark road without working headlights, accidentally hits a local farmer. The next day, his new friends have told the police about the accident and pushed the blame entirely on him. A by-the-book detective (played by Thomas Kretschmann) makes James aware of two facts: In this country, the punishment for a foreigner being responsible for the death of a local is death, and he can pay to have an exact double, possessing his memories, made to be executed in his stead.

To save himself, James decides to undergo the procedure and sacrifice a replicated version of himself. A couple questions emerge, such as wondering which version of James we're seeing—the original or the double—and just how any of this actually works. Cronenberg immediately dismisses them, referring to the process as a kind of poetry (A not-so-subtle hint that we shouldn't take this literally), or quickly acknowledges them before tossing them to the side (It doesn't really matter if it's the original James or the double, because the man is still the same no matter the option).

As for the rest of the plot, it takes a turn that has very little to do with plot. It has much more to do with the mindset of the kind of person who has the means and the character to get away with killing and cheat death in such a fashion. Seeing himself—in a way—be violently killed and smiling at the gruesome act, something awakens inside James. He becomes freer, knowing that his actions have no physical or moral or mortal consequences, and starts hanging out with others who, like him, chose to have a double made and subsequently executed for their crimes.

Obviously, Gabi and Alban are among that group, and the rest of the story follows the crew of second-chancers (Who knows how many chances they paid for themselves, really?) in orgies of crime, violence, drugs, and, in a more literal way, sex. There's an obvious sensationalism to some of this, whether it be the kaleidoscopic montages of hallucinatory experiences (a particular drug and the experience of being cloned) or the few scenes depicting bloodshed and sex. Cronenberg also displays relative restraint in examining James' surrender to his existential crisis and a sense of freedom from death—or the very real knowledge, from witnessing it firsthand, that he will die. Maybe, though, James is nothing more than a hesitant tourist—on vacation, in indulging in such behavior, in living his own life.

The filmmaker takes some chances with Infinity Pool, from the repeated shifting of the plot to the level of extremes in the content. Cronenberg's most significant gamble, which pays off more than it doesn't, is in turning such over-the-top material into a psychological study of control—grabbing for it, losing it, realizing it was never there in the first place.

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