Treading Water
The feature debut of director Gino Evans, Treading Water follows Danny (Joe Gill) as he rejoins society after a brief prison sentence, taking up residence in a halfway house to get back on his feet and kick his heroin addiction. Danny is keen to embrace his second chance, but his efforts to beat his drug habit are complicated by his OCD, with his anxieties and intrusive thoughts driving him to drug use, which in turn impacts his mental health. Things only become more complicated when he runs into his old flame, Laura (Becky Bowe), and their lives become increasingly dangerously intertwined.
Mental health is a tricky subject to depict sensitively, and even with the best of intentions, a piece can fall into the trap of either demonising or patronising people with mental illness. However, Treading Water manages to successfully navigate this complicated narrative territory, striking the perfect balance between accurately representing the uphill struggles Danny goes through while not defining him by his mental health issues. Danny’s OCD informs much of his character arc, and it’s given the dignity and compassion it needs, but he’s allowed to be a fully-realised character, with agency and depth.
The film’s editing goes a long way in threading this delicate needle, with the camera work and sound design working overtime to put its audience in Danny’s shoes as he attempts to find some sense of normalcy. Claustrophobic closeup shots and adjusted audio levels that amplify the smallest noises effectively communicate the background radiation of anxiety and unease that punctuates much of Danny’s life, but perhaps Treading Water’s most distinctive trick is how it handles his intrusive thoughts, transitioning without warning into imagined scenes of extreme, brutal violence before cutting directly back to reality.
This cinematographic device (which is used sparingly enough not to wear out its welcome) makes for a stressful and harrowing viewing experience, but deliberately so, communicating Danny’s fraught emotional state and contextualising his actions without justifying them.
Treading Water is a tough watch in many ways. It puts a lot of effort into instilling a sense of constant unease over two hours, and its storytelling is saturated with tragedy and malaise. This is all by design, though, and uncomfortable though it may be, it sheds an important light on many unsung stories taking place right now, doing so with a great deal of care.
Umar Ali
Treading Water is released nationwide on 25th April 2025.
Watch the trailer for Treading Water here:
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