My grandmother used to tell me that it’s “just as easy to love a rich man as it is to love a poor man.” I guess she decided that things would be better in life if I was free of the limitations and pressures of monetary concerns. But I always say, “Life is like the movies.” Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s slow, sometimes if you keep trying to tell everyone the best way to do it they get annoyed and walk out on you … Oh, sorry. Maybe that last part only applies to my personal issues.  

The point I’m digressing from is that sometimes—when your limitations relate to your lack of deep pockets—it keeps you focused on what is needed. Also, every choice matters. In the movie Swimmers, this is reflected in the family trying to make a life in their depressed fishing community on the Chesapeake Bay. Emily Tyler is a bright and somewhat ironic eleven-year-old whose one joy in life is swimming. An accident during a school competition precludes her from this solace unless or until she receives an expensive surgical procedure that her family cannot afford. Her stoic fisherman father, Will (Robert Knott in a perfect, understated performance), financially hamstrung—because of a poor economy and dwindling population of good catch—tries to wreck his fishing boat to pay for Emily’s operation with the insurance money. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out exactly as he’d planned, putting even more stress on his finances and relationships.

Emily finds her escape from the ensuing tension by befriending twenty-something  Merrill, (Sarah Paulson) who comes back to the town she was happily shed of years before, when she learns that her childhood home (and the unresolved memories spawned there) was about to be sold. Two souls out of balance, Emily and Merrill find sanctuary and understanding in each other. But Merrill’s unsettled issues throw her into entanglements with both of Emily’s brothers, compounding the already complicated struggles simmering behind the peeling paint and weathered walls of the Tyler’s precarious family and home. 

The harsh but warmly intimate lifestyle of this film’s setting is almost a character in itself, and makes a powerful metaphor that colors the emotions, actions, and the very fate of everyone concerned. Deftly written and directed by Doug Sadler, there is not a mediocre performance anywhere in the piece. No image is without purpose and no scene wasted. Sean Hatosy, as Emily’s caring brother and Merrill’s would-be suitor, brims with quiet warmth. Cherry Jones as Julia, the unwavering center of this fragmented family, hits every perfect note.