There have been great films about fractured relationships between children and their weathered parents. On Golden Pond, Terms of Endearment, Ordinary People, and Nothing in Common are just a few. Unfortunately, Looking Through Water is not one of them. The picture muddles legitimate themes and plays more like a vanity-driven nepotism project.
The main problem is that the film is miscast, squanders the talents of its only true star, Michael Douglas, and generates suspense only in whether you’ll make it to Looking Through Water’s end credits.
Looking Through Water Plot
The story follows William (Michael Douglas), who is about to take his grandson Kyle (Percy Jackson and the Olympians‘ Walker Scobell), a teenager with a black eye and a bad attitude. They live in ever picturesque Florida Keys. And as a favor to his daughter (Liza Weil), he wants to find out what is going on with the young man who has been acting out at school and at home.
While fishing, William shares stories that Kyle can relate to. Told in flashbacks, William (Cloverfield’s
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His estranged father enters him in a fishing competition. The town is full of eccentric characters, including a ravishing singer (Ximena Romo), a local bar owner (Tamara Tunie), and a clingy deckhand (Cameron Douglas). Like William’s father, he begins to confront the pain of why his father abandoned him years ago.
Looking Through Water Review
Based on the book Catching Big Fish and Looking by Bob Rich, an author well known for his charity work and as the businessman who founded Rich Products. The connection to my hometown of Buffalo had me wanting to recommend the film on that basis alone; the material’s message is ultimately lost in translation under the direction of Roberto Sneider.
Working with a script from Zach Dean (Fast X) and Rowdy Herrington (Striking Distance), the movie is utterly predictable. To make matters worse, the backstory told in flashbacks mirrors what is happening in the current timeline. This is meant to add poinancy, but all it does is cause yawn-inducing redundancy.
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However, the scenes with the elder Douglas ring true. The memory segments, however, bring the story to a grinding halt. Cameron Douglas and Michael Stahl-David’s third-act blunder sinks the film like an anchor tossed overboard. Neither has the acting chops to carry it through to the end. Worse, the film’s intended message never surfaces, buried beneath wooden performances that mistake mugging for nuance.
Is Looking Through Water worth watching?
Looking Through Water is not worth watching. Simply put, the film is underwhelming to the point of being boring. Michael Douglas doesn’t get nearly enough screen time, even though the story desperately needs his gravitas to give weight to its intended message—that family is what you make it. The movie is a faux “emotional” journey that is cinematically hypocritical.
There are dozens of films about fathers and sons that explore estrangement and distance. However, this cast is unable to capture the vulnerability and sense of mortality that should lead to forgiveness and acceptance. Instead, the subplots are drenched in sun-soaked settings and material fetishes, failing to deliver the dramatic punch of a third act that is both tired and utterly predictable.
The new film Looking Through Water premieres on September 12th!
