September 5, 2025
FILM: DROWNING DRY
DIRECTED BY: LAURYNAS BAREISA
STARRING: PAULIUS MARKEVICIUS, GELMINE GLEMZAITE, GIEDRIUS KIELA
RATING: 2 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
I generally like films that play with narrative structure. You know, when timelines jump around? Think Pulp Fiction, Memento, etc. Usually a sense that we are about to embark on a non-chronological plot is made clear after a scene or two, setting viewers up to anticipate some inner work needed to keep the story straight. In the Lithuanian film Drowning Dry the narrative develops in a pretty standard linear direction for most of its initial running time. Then a possible drowning occurs and everything that comes after that is put into question.
The film begins at a martial arts tournament where Lukas (Paulius Markevicius) is victorious. The fighter, his wife, and young son then head to a lake house with his sister-in-law, her husband Tomas, and their child. This is presented with a lot of long takes as characters walk in and out of frames and set up the house for their extended stay. Some of the dynamics of the characters are established but nothing too detailed. Lukas and his wife discuss home buying, financial issues, and retirement insurance. Tomas and his wife appear to have some sexual dysfunctions. Meanwhile the kids spend a scene breaking toys in a bedroom…
What does it all amount to? Not much in terms of plot. The women aren’t as well-developed as the men but they seem to have a fairly tight bond. When the families walk out to a pier for a swim a possible drowning occurs. There is then a detour as the plot seems to jump ahead to some unknown period in the characters’ lives. Clearly, at least one of them has died but it isn’t specified when or how. The plot then reverts to an earlier scene in which the sisters perform a dance at the lake house only this time they dance to a different song. (Both feature the word “forever” in their lyrics.)
This is when the narrative thread is lost. Is this an alternate timeline? Does it change events in the characters’ lives? Perhaps, but the logic is missing, thus throwing off viewers’ sense of time, space, and narrative continuity. While there is some clarification during the film’s final scenes it still leaves some plot holes unexplained.
The big question is why? What good does this narrative structure serve the story or audience? Quentin Tarantino chose his non-linear storytelling in Pulp Fiction as a way to hit people in emotionally satisfying ways while still being able to figure out the plot. Christopher Nolan created a character in Memento who has had a brain injury thus keeping him from remembering anything beyond the previous fifteen minutes. We are then experiencing things from his faulty perspective and it works! However, writer/director Laurynas Bareisa doesn’t attempt to make her narrative choices earned here. Instead the audience is kept wondering about the various shifts in the plot.
She must have known she was creating fairly thin female characters. Were these women in the shadows of their more successful husbands who don’t speak much and instead use physical movements to stress their male dominance? The sisters seem regulated to domestic chores at the lake house. It is only near the end where they seem to have more of a necessary function in the story.
All of this amounts to a film which is generally very quiet but sloppily constructed and lacking in clear character development.
Drowning Dry begins streaming on MUBI today.
FILM: DROWNING DRY
DIRECTED BY: LAURYNAS BAREISA
STARRING: PAULIUS MARKEVICIUS, GELMINE GLEMZAITE, GIEDRIUS KIELA
RATING: 2 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
I generally like films that play with narrative structure. You know, when timelines jump around? Think Pulp Fiction, Memento, etc. Usually a sense that we are about to embark on a non-chronological plot is made clear after a scene or two, setting viewers up to anticipate some inner work needed to keep the story straight. In the Lithuanian film Drowning Dry the narrative develops in a pretty standard linear direction for most of its initial running time. Then a possible drowning occurs and everything that comes after that is put into question.
The film begins at a martial arts tournament where Lukas (Paulius Markevicius) is victorious. The fighter, his wife, and young son then head to a lake house with his sister-in-law, her husband Tomas, and their child. This is presented with a lot of long takes as characters walk in and out of frames and set up the house for their extended stay. Some of the dynamics of the characters are established but nothing too detailed. Lukas and his wife discuss home buying, financial issues, and retirement insurance. Tomas and his wife appear to have some sexual dysfunctions. Meanwhile the kids spend a scene breaking toys in a bedroom…
What does it all amount to? Not much in terms of plot. The women aren’t as well-developed as the men but they seem to have a fairly tight bond. When the families walk out to a pier for a swim a possible drowning occurs. There is then a detour as the plot seems to jump ahead to some unknown period in the characters’ lives. Clearly, at least one of them has died but it isn’t specified when or how. The plot then reverts to an earlier scene in which the sisters perform a dance at the lake house only this time they dance to a different song. (Both feature the word “forever” in their lyrics.)
This is when the narrative thread is lost. Is this an alternate timeline? Does it change events in the characters’ lives? Perhaps, but the logic is missing, thus throwing off viewers’ sense of time, space, and narrative continuity. While there is some clarification during the film’s final scenes it still leaves some plot holes unexplained.
The big question is why? What good does this narrative structure serve the story or audience? Quentin Tarantino chose his non-linear storytelling in Pulp Fiction as a way to hit people in emotionally satisfying ways while still being able to figure out the plot. Christopher Nolan created a character in Memento who has had a brain injury thus keeping him from remembering anything beyond the previous fifteen minutes. We are then experiencing things from his faulty perspective and it works! However, writer/director Laurynas Bareisa doesn’t attempt to make her narrative choices earned here. Instead the audience is kept wondering about the various shifts in the plot.
She must have known she was creating fairly thin female characters. Were these women in the shadows of their more successful husbands who don’t speak much and instead use physical movements to stress their male dominance? The sisters seem regulated to domestic chores at the lake house. It is only near the end where they seem to have more of a necessary function in the story.
All of this amounts to a film which is generally very quiet but sloppily constructed and lacking in clear character development.
Drowning Dry begins streaming on MUBI today.