The Swimmer

Burt Lancaster stars in this adaptation of John Cheever's dreamlike short story about one man's highly unusual attempt to find meaning in his life. On the morning after a booze-filled night, Ned Merrill wakes up in a haze, confronted by the sterility of his isolated, wealthy suburban existence. So he decides to traverse this upper-class world swimming pool by swimming pool: he goes to each neighbor's house, swims through the chlorinated waters of the requisite backyard pool, and chats with the owner. Among the people he sees are his longtime mistress, a sexy babysitter and a couple of politically-liberal (or so they believe) nudists. This interesting, overlooked film, is a visually captivating look at the essential emptiness of the "American Dream."