Anna (Laura Tremblay) has faced a lifetime of use and abuse. Having had enough of her never-ending cycle of woe and pain, Anna taps into her imagination and believes herself into a new reality where she’s in control. Her emotional recall becomes rife with revenge fantasy as she manifests her way into a new, better life.

DROWNING is a fresh spin on an often-used trope – an abused woman finds herself in a life of sex work and crime, but eventually is empowered enough to fight back. The new take comes from the unique twist of having Anna work through her pain and quest for revenge through a series of ever-changing fantasies and almost-events. This is one of those movies that you can’t look away from or you’ll lose the plot. It’s subtle and succinct in its telling of a new revenge narrative. Utilizing repeating narration to indicate new incarnations of events, and black and white footage for memories (or so we think), the overall look and feel of DROWNING plays an integral part of the success of the storytelling.

It’s unfortunate, but I do have to share a few concerns I had watching this film. While the overarching storyline has the potential could be seen as empowering and play as a feminist manifesto, DROWNING falls into some unforgivable traps along the way. Anna is selfish, angry, and plays too easily into the hands of anyone who’d talk badly of sex workers. Her violent and irrational actions betray her true intentions and make her appear to be merely a damaged soul without hope for true redemption. Her need for violent revenge is justified but is too familiar a tool to those who try to demonize sex workers. A life of sex work = a life of crime in too many people’s eyes, and it appears to be true in this film as well. Combine this with an objectifying and slightly archaic portrayal of sex workers – utilizing stereotypes of race, economic status, and so on – and an inability to pass the Bechdel test (the lowest rung of feminism) and this film won’t be winning any awards from the female empowerment crowd any time soon. Add to this stew of unfortunate misogyny that this is a male-written and produced film, a fact I’d likely ignore if it wasn’t so apparent, and what could be considered just overused and tired tropes become questionably dangerous male gaze revenge porn.

I applaud DROWNING for the casting of Tremblay, who carries the weight of this entire film on her strong and capable shoulders. Her performance has depth and grace while also providing an air of badass don’t-give-a-f*** attitude that endears us to her every step of her revenge journey. Anna’s fight is not just with her abusers, enablers, and those who neglected and abandoned her – but deeply with herself, and Tremblay plays the pathos and heart of Anna beautifully.

While a woman’s revenge against her abuser is something I ache to see in both fantasy and reality, I wish that DROWNING had done it with just a little more feminism and a little less hokey cliche. A woman shouldn’t have to be abused or neglected to have chosen a life of sex work, and when the sex work isn’t her game anymore, her life should be her own. DROWNING gets there eventually, sometimes almost excruciatingly slowly, with a few major stumbles along the way.

6/10 stars