When you aren’t sure you’ve just been punk’d watching a satire of a suspense thriller or the real deal, you know something has gone very wrong… or very right… depending on your camp tolerance.

The Girl in the Pool stars the man, the myth, the legend Freddie Prinze Jr. as a distressingly middle aged man who is having an affair with a twenty something. When his wife and kids throw him a birthday party by the pool on the same day he finds his girlfriend dead in said pool, can he hide the body and stop overacting for just one second? (spoiler alert: no. no he can’t).

Freddie Prinze Jr… is… hmm…. well you see… yeah… he was never all that good an actor but I guess he was cute and doe-eyed for the ladies back in the 90s. Now he’s just old and grizzled and makes me feel old and grizzled watching him (time is the crucible in which we burn).

He’s still pretty dire as an older actor in a suspense thriller. He’s so off-kilter he makes me think the movie is a comedy. A satire of Girl in he Window/Train/Whatever type thrillers. But I don’t think it’s a comedy. But maybe it is? Some of the other actors do their level best to overplay some ridiculous dialog too… so maybe that’s comedy. Or maybe this whole film unravels at a subatomic level and becomes a Shroedinger’s Film Cat… maybe its serious, maybe its funny… the only way to know is to open the box and ask the cast and crew.

Which means there’s possibly inadvertently camp value… and that’s the only reason I’m not going lower in my ratings. I got a giggle out of some scenes, line readings, and edits, especially in the gonzo over-acted third act.

So don’t see it unless you are Jonesing for Mr. Freddy Prinze Junior or if you just want to chuckle at a bad movie. It’s not good but maybe that’s the charm? I’m unconvinced.

Score: 60