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Director: Jay Alaimo
MPAA Rating: R
Film Pulse Score: 2.5/10
Chlorine is easily one of the most boring films I have seen in some time. At its center is a couple trying to keep up with the Joneses. The couple is played by Kyra Sedwick as Georgie and Vincent D’Onofrio as Frank. She is a stay-at-home mom and he works in a bank. At the bank, Frank is constantly passed over for vice president and a raise much to Georgie’s chagrin. She is constantly picking on him to be more assertive in what he wants but the bank president is having none of it. Frank is not a go-getter and does not bring in sufficient money to fill the bank’s coffers.
The proverbial Joneses are played by Elisabeth Röhm as Katherine and Jordan Belfi as Doug. Doug is a cocaine addict and scores from the tennis pro at the country club. The country club is at the center of the upscale society of the local residents. It seems everyone who is anyone belongs, even Georgie and Frank though they have trouble affording the fee. We also meet other members of the staff who orbit the wealthy country club patrons.
Doug pressures Frank into investing in a housing development. Frank, of course, does not have the money to do so until he scores over $200,000 of the tennis pro’s money. He steals $100,000 to give to Doug to get into the deal in hopes of making enough to return the pro’s money before he misses it. Unfortunately, the deal is a bust, partly because it is being built on a Native American burial ground. Doug has also enlisted the help of an unscrupulous contractor (Tom Sizemore) who cuts corners at every turn. Frank’s son works for him and tries to build the houses correctly by is told by the boss to use inferior materials.
Ultimately, it comes out that the investment group Doug has put together along with help from Frank’s bank president is similar to a Ponzi scheme. It appears everyone who has invested will lose their money. When Frank finds out about it, he goes through his boss’ desk and finds evidence of wrongdoing; he has already mistrusted Doug for some time.
Sedwick and D’Onofrio do the best they can with a pretty awful script, though at times they seem like they are acting in a movie-of-the-week rather than a feature film. The addition of Georgie and Frank’s angst-ridden children drive this point home. The film goes nowhere fast, and I cannot recommend it.
