Swimming with Men was chosen as the film to close of the 2018 Edinburgh Film Festival. Unfortunately many reviews of the film don’t give it too much praise and try to examine it’s inability to create deep characters and how it does not have a good representation of women.
I think that this film was delightful, light and warm-hearted. I think that the characters that were presented, although not given specific backstories, were very clearly deep and complex. I could tell each character had quirks and had gone through emotional life experiences that brought them to the swim club. Although I didn’t know exactly what the younger man had done illegally, I would still chuckle every time he was getting chased by the police. I think the beauty was not knowing the specifics of their life stories but still feeling a strong sense of character from each of them.
As for the presence of women in the film, I honestly didn’t notice any issues for myself as a woman. I think the wife and the swim coach were fun characters. Granted they “only played as love interests”, I think they stood their own and were able to make a strong presence within an otherwise all-male cast. I think that critics need to let there be movies that are designed to look into the lives of men and their insecurities and struggles and not be focused mostly on the secondary female roles.
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