“Treading Water” is a Raw Look at Addiction in Manchester
Much of Gino Evans’ Treading Water will make the audience feel as though they’re barely keeping their heads above water. It’s a film that does an exceptional job of making the viewer part of the story. That what is unfolding on screen is a part of them. This sensation comes from Treading Water’s almost observational nature. It’s a film that approaches its characters with empathy, something these fictional people aren’t accustomed to receiving. Treading Water is an exercise in compassion that pushes viewers outside their comfort zones in the way film is meant to.
courtesy of Treading Water
The film introduces Danny (Joe Gill) on his last day in prison. He’s spent half a year inside because of a drug charge. On the outside, Danny continues to use because it’s the only way he’s found he can quiet the intrusive thoughts in his head. Danny has a form of OCD that manifests in intrusive thoughts and tics. While walking the streets of Manchester, he comes across his friend from school, Laura (Becky Bowe). Like Danny, she is struggling to find her place in the world, trapped in her own cycle of loss and desperation. Neither of them are happy with where their lives have led them, and the chance reunion could be the thing that pushes them forward or knocks them even further backward.
The dynamic between Danny and Laura is one of Treading Water’s most impressive attributes. Gill and Bowe have great natural chemistry between them, and it feels like they really are old friends who have found each other once again. To everyone but each other, it’s clear that they’re looking for something the other person cannot provide. Danny sees Laura as the life raft that will take him to shore. He’s placed all his hope in someone else instead of doing the arduous work that goes along with rebuilding yourself. Laura doesn’t see Danny as the answer to her life, but as a fragile escape from it all. A chance to return to the hopeful days of her youth when things were easier. The push and pull of their expectations of one another becomes the heart of Treading Water. It’s a heart that’s breaking ever so slowly, obvious to viewers, but not to those whose hearts are on the line.
courtesy of Treading Water
As much as society has progressed, there’s still a stigma surrounding mental health. No one questions the pain of a broken leg, but many believe mental illness is simply weakness. That if the person suffering just stopped thinking that way, their problems would be solved. Treading Water immerses the viewer in Danny’s brain, often to an uncomfortable degree. We see these intrusive thoughts take hold of him, see the violent scenarios play out in his brain. Colloquially, the internet has co-opted the diagnosis of intrusive thoughts to be something more playful. Someone who actually experiences them on a daily basis will tell you that it’s not so much the thought itself, but the mental hold it has over them and the anxiety they create. Treading Water captures that headspace to an uncanny degree to encourage people to rethink their understanding of mental health.
“I guess I’m doing it to be normal,” Danny admits in a voiceover early in the film. He’s referring to the drugs he uses to make the intrusive thoughts disappear for a little while. They’re his floatie in an ever-rising sea. Treading Water wants Danny, Laura, and the viewer to know that community and human connection are the answer to the high tides of our lives.
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