The Swimmer Movie Review

Great voyages often make great movies, and Burt Lancaster's "swimming home" from house to house across a ritzy Connecticut county in an attempt to figure out his life, is one of them. At first he seems completely content, visiting friends across the valley from his house, but as his backyard-pool trip continues, a darker story emerges, as he encounters people from his past (all of whom seem to be spending the day out by the pool). From romantic affairs to strange business dealings to a world of debt to general neurotic behavior, Lancaster's Ned Merrill is a tragic hero for the '60s, and it's one of Lancaster's most searing performances. Frank Perry's direction is dated (though Sydney Pollack may have done uncredited work on it), but that oddly makes the film even more memorable.