Directed and co-written by Ari Gold
Starring Rory Culkin, Robert Sheehan and Isabelle McNally
Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes
MPAA rating: R for language, graphic nudity and some sexual content

by Deborah Krieger

“Dearest Charlotte, you begged me to freeze time. I’ll do anything, even that.” Mingling in the waters of a mist-glazed lake, Charlotte (Mary Beth Peil) and Hal (Brian Dennehy), an army man away at war, exchange epistolary love notes, essentially spelling out the message and themes of the movie about a minute or so into an ninety-minute movie. As we immediately learn from a well-executed faux-1940s newsreel, Charlotte (Charlie) and Hal are members of the Sway family, whose private lake retreat has all the glamour and prestige of a West Egg hot spot. Their son swims in the beautiful waters of the lake as a newscaster-style voice croons, “So, Timmy, are you going to be a hero like your father?” We then immediately cut to Sway Lake in February, 1992, as frozen and bleak as a tundra, where the adult Timmy Sway promptly drowns himself in that unforgiving abyss. A needle settles into the grooves of an LP; the lights of the lake house are on, but no one is coming home.