Treading Water pulls no punches when it comes to depicting the hardships that come with addiction and mental health issues. It brings a lot of emotions to the fore as a result but this quickly sours with the mistreatment of a female character.
★★☆☆☆
Gino Evans makes his directorial debut with Treading Water, the story of Danny (Joe Gill) and his attempts at readjusting to the outside world, fresh out of prison. Mental health issues, most prominently OCD, plague Danny as he looks to fend off his inner demons and get his life back on track.
Not only is Danny navigating relationships with family and friends but also a potential love interest, Laura (Becky Bowe). It is with this female character that a conversation needs to be had about the depiction and mistreatment of women, all women, in our media.
Set in Manchester, Treading Water has drawn comparisons to the work of directors such as Andrea Arnold and Shane Meadows, owing to its gritty and unapologetic British nature. Films set in the North of England, more often than not, cover heavy subject matters with there apparently being very little room for love and positivity. Evans’ debut is no different and so the audience is faced with some pretty stark imagery, which either works for you or doesn’t.
Danny’s OCD makes for a fascinating topic, and is something not seen regularly on the big screen. Whether it be clicking a pen or wanting to straighten items on a therapist’s desk, it is clear that Danny’s life is dramatically impacted by this condition. It’s an eye-opening presentation of the condition, and as a result, you really feel for and connect with him as a main character—for the first half of the film, at least.
Things go downhill in the second half, when Laura enters the picture. Between the abuse she suffers at the hands of her partner and the ferocity with which a struggling Danny latches on to her, an uncomfortable aura descends and the sheer weight of it all becomes too much to withstand. Treading Water goes from a well-grounded story to an unpleasant cliché, where this one-dimensional female character exists only to serve the men around her. Danny’s perceived acts of love and affection are particularly degrading towards her—whether her job as a sex worker is meant to play into this presentation is unclear.
Danny provides a voiceover for large parts of Treading Water, vocalising his internal monologue as he goes through some really dark thoughts. This is a device which doesn’t always have the desired impact, and occasionally makes the film feel more like a documentary as the audience goes along with him, every step of the way with him.
With so much attention on Danny and only Danny, we are connected to his every thought, but this approach leads the film to lose focus after the hour mark, though, segueing into an extended party scene full of drink and drugs. It is obvious why this is relevant to the story but there is no intrigue or development here, just 30 minutes of filler where a group of men spend what little money they have on substances to help numb their pain.
Humour offers a stark contrast for Danny and co, with small pockets of laughter alleviating the stress and tension that come with such a full-on subject matter. This again plays into the realistic nature of the story; a story which is all too common up and down the country.
The Verdict
Strong building blocks are put in place regarding a man’s battle against himself, only for them to then be knocked down by reinforcements of age-old, outdated perceptions of sex workers and women in general, executed in poor taste.
Words by Jamie Rooke
Treading Water is in select cinemas 25 April
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