Coralknight Review of Drown

Drown (I) (2015)

A distasteful and anachronistic look at homophobia

[3/10 · 17 January 2017]

Drown is set in one of the most arguably regressive "Western" societies on the planet, Australia. While it's 'parent", the UK has become the opposite extreme of being ultra-liberal to the point of intolerance for anyone with an opinion contrary to the status quo, Australia continues to lag behind in attitudes and tolerance towards homosexual men. This is evidenced in the dynamics between the two protagonists; one a gay man, Phillip and another what seems to be a type-A closeted gay man, Len. While it appears Len has some repressed sexual attraction to Phillip, the fact that Phillip is younger, better looking and ultimately better athletically causes Len to resent and eventually take out his aggressions on him. The plot eventually devolves into a story-line as old as "Billy Budd", also played out in the French film Beau Travail. Although unlike those examples, there really doesn't seem to be any logical reason for Phillip to continuously tolerate and accept the increasing abuses from Len (i.e. he is not a subordinate), other than for us to surmise Phillip is secretly a hard-core masochist. And the revelation that Len is in fact homosexual is not at all a revelation since it is alluded to throughout the film, which makes it anti-climactic. Mildly entertaining, but certainly anachronistic to any Western standards.