Images courtesy of Good Deed Entertainment
LOOKING THROUGH WATER— 3 STARS
In Looking Through the Water, screen legend Michael Douglas—in his final screen performance before announcing his retirement—plays a sagacious grandfather who has been tasked with taking his grandson fishing. This supporting role in an independent movie from Good Deed Entertainment is smaller in scope than his previous three credits in massive Marvel Cinematic Universe entries and pales in complexity to the memorable, morally complex characters on his resume, where this final bow may not feel important enough in some eyes. Nevertheless, there’s something special about placing his mystique in such a soft, simple position.
LESSON #1: PRESENTING YOUR WISEST AND PUREST SELF— This small but key part in Looking Through Water strips away the edginess normally associated with Michael Douglas. That’s not to say he doesn’t have it. No matter how silvered or creased the Oscar winner may now be in his eighties, the charismatic cinders still flicker behind his eyes and in that signature, gravely vocal register. Douglas arrives in Looking Through Water 13 years older and 8 years older, respectively, than Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau doing their Grumpy Old Men schtick. Like them, his screen presence is undeniable, and this film does not need the last of his provocative sizzle. It needs his vast wisdom and purest self, and gets it in spades, making Looking Through Water an inspired place to bid adieu to an unquestioned icon.
Back to the shores of this Massachusetts lake (filmed in and around Pittsfield), the imagery of Michael Douglas patiently rowing his boat without a motor and casting lines out in search of a bite or two of sporting enjoyment amid a senior’s peace is quietly striking. After all, fishing is a cherished pastime, and here’s Douglas’s William McKay getting a chance to share it with his progeny. The familial joys of this hobby call to mind a stanza from Edgar Albert Guest’s poem, “A Boy And His Dad”:
I fancy I hear them talking there
In an open boat, and speech is fair;
And the boy is learning the ways of men
From the finest man in his youthful ken.
Kings, to youngster, cannot compare
With the gentle father who’s with him there.
And the greatest mind of the human race
Not for one minute could take his place.
While plenty would love an afternoon shooting the breeze under a fair sky with Michael Douglas. Alas, it’s not that simple in Looking Through Water. The boy’s mother needs a break from the petulant young man named Kyle, played by Walker Scobell from The Adam Project, who is seen adorned in a hoodie and a beanie cap, hiding the marks of a recent fight. The kid disconnects from his grandfather to be immersed in his phone, blaring music through his earbuds. Initially, this is far from the fair speech and gentleness of Guest’s poem. It’s going to take some warming up.
After slyly discarding Kyle’s earbuds into the lake, William presses his now-undistracted grandson to tell him how he got his facial injuries. Kyle pushes back with his own curiosity about a prominent scar above William’s eye. He says it’s a long story, fit for their setting of a long afternoon fishing. They agree to swap stories, with the grandfather going first.
This catalyst of yarns kicks off Looking Through Water’s lengthy use of flashbacks. A lifetime ago, William McKay (now played by Cloverfield’s Michael Stahl-David) was a fabulously wealthy New York City executive with a penthouse and a gorgeous arm-candy fiancée. When he gets wind of unfaithfulness and an attempted internal corporate takeover from his closest associate, William makes an embarrassing public scene and drowns his sorrows at home. At this low point, he receives a random invitation from his own estranged father, Leo (the great veteran character actor David Morse), to join him for a fishing tournament in Belize.
With little purpose left to battle, William makes the trip to clear his head and finds a quieter and more grounded version of his father than he remembers, who passed his vast fortune and company control to him years earlier. Free of any trappings and living meagerly, Leo now lives for fishing and the close local friendships he’s made with a fishing guide (Douglas’s son Cameron Douglas) and a seaside bartender (Tamara Tunie). Even though he was set for life in more ways than one, William and Leo naturally have a contentious history.
LESSON #2: MAKING GENERATIONAL AMENDS— However, much like what’s happening parallel with Douglas decades later, Looking Through Water seeks to make and demonstrate generational amends. Kyle opens up to express disappointment and hate towards his off-screen father and broken parents, all while the older William waxes on about how he was able to come to grips and forgive many similar ones made by Leo. The old man relays to the young one that, as a fisherman, he’s a believer in that “nothing lasts except family, friendship, and love.” Each loop from past to present reveals more wrinkles and eventual prudence.
While David Morse gives Looking Through Water a measure of clout, the past portions of the film are shakier than the present-day scenes commanded by Douglas. Even though whimsy is the main vibe of the entire movie, too many soap opera-ish revelations and happenstances, including a love interest angle with alluring TV actress Ximena Romo, stack on top of each other and overwhelm Michael Stahl-David’s half of the character. The angles are weak and feel like an excuse for a crew to have an extended vacation in luscious Central America.
LESSON #3: CEMENTING PROMISES— Somewhere there’s a version of Looking Through Water that never leaves that little boat in Massachusetts. From the callback zinger of “When one person calls another person an asshole, we know for sure one of them is” to the declaration of honor and confidence bound to the floating vessel being shared between men, all of the best promises of this film’s story are cemented by Douglas and Scobell. You really feel it when Douglas declares, “I don’t make many, but I keep the ones that I do.” The full 106 minutes could have stayed on those two and lost none of the affectionate impact.
LESSON #4: FISHING CURES JUST ABOUT ANYTHING— One can step back from the foamy emotions of Looking Through Water and arrive at the convenient comfort that fishing cures just about anything. It’s a place for anyone, even a Hollywood star giving up something lucrative for the easy life, to teach, talk, relax, and bond with people they hold dear. Circling back to Edgar Albert Guest’s poem, the goal is to arrive at this point:
Which is happier, man or boy?
The soul of the father is steeped in joy,
For he’s finding out, to his heart’s delight,
That his son is fit for the future fight.
He is learning the glorious depths of him.
And the thoughts he thinks and his every whim,
And he shall discover, when night comes on,
How close he has grown to his little son.
What can I say? Fishing can magically make that happen in the matter of an afternoon.
In the end, Looking Through Water, directed by Roberto Sneider (You’re Killing Me Susana), finds its aim not far from Guest’s poem. The longer the talk, the longer the truth, and the echoes of this family’s history cannot help but feel a shade personal to Michael Douglas, a man who grew up in—and later raised children of his own in—home environments merging step-parents and step-siblings. This feels like a role his father, Kirk, would have taken with gravitas, especially with Cameron Douglas present. Granting all due respect, seeing Michael choose to emphasize quality time with family is a fine choice of a career finale.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1345)
