--- Spoilers ---
I love this movie so much it's hard for me to write any kind of in-depth analysis about it.... and the fact that other reviewers did it perfectly well doesn't encourage either.
One of the great strengths of this eerie film is that we'll never be revealed what happened to Ned Merrill and to his family, so that many viewers can figure out their version of the personal background story for Ned. Well, I'd like to try to figure out my own, just for fun.
1- Basic facts, given very early in the picture: Ned's been away for quite a long time, as it seems, something like two years. He appears to have been a big corporate executive in Manhattan, rich enough to live in some big mansion located in a wealthy neighborhood. He has a wife, Lucinda, and two daughters. Strangely enough, he only shows up dressed in swimming trunks, bare foot, without any car or vehicle of any kind. Even if he carries himself well, and seems in very good shape, he has a tendency not to answer questions about himself, his life, his family, or in the vaguest way. (Writing skills from John Cheever and the screenwriter: by giving these specific informations early, they're setting up the odd tone of the film.)
2- Derived facts or light extrapolations: Ned has problems to remain focused (even in the middle of a conversation), he seems "elsewhere", delusional. We're pretty sure he's subject to hallucinations, and we also get the point quickly he cannot see reality as it is. When confronted to hostile people, he looks astounded, totally surprised, as if woken up in an abrupt way. He then loses all his arrogant self-confidence, and at times runs away, literally. (The good filmmaking quality gives the audience the ability to often view things from three points of views: Ned's, his counterparts' - male or female, aged or young, friendly or hostile - and our external point of view.)
3- Interpretations and extrapolations: everybody seems to recognize Ned easily, from residents to employees, and even teenagers have recollections about him (fourth pool). Needless to say that Ned was some sort of a big man on campus, which could explain why few people will take a chance to push him out directly, only three actually. A kind of "The higher they rise, the harder they fall" situation is plausible, of course, but beside the obvious fact that Ned got bankrupted, other disturbing elements about him are revealed: his educational skills seem poor (he isn't paying much attention to the little boy's safety by the empty pool), he was a definitive womanizer and acting unfaithfully to his wife, while other people seemed aware of it (first pool), he is accused directly to be a crook (recreational center pool) and less than concerned by others' health (the encounter with the mother on third pool). We're also proposed to believe he was a kind of cynical jerk, unable to appreciate the simple pleasures of life, which he apparently can now (the race with the horse). And last but not least, he's portrayed as an actor of segregation (the surrealistic conversation with the African-American Rolls Royce driver) and a miser fellow, as well (sixth pool). (Rather than explaining things with long pieces of dialog, the counterparts' reactions to Ned's behavior and words build a precious indicator of Ned's past life and times.)
4- Questions: why do some people seem so uneasy when Ned's around? In a scene where he clumsily tries to seduce a woman who never met him before, the lady's husband takes her aside and as he whispers something to her hear, her face gets distraught instantly. Some other people won't hesitate to bully him (eighth pool), humiliate him, pity him or even insult him (the whole recreational center pool sequence). Why this violence? Do Ned's past acts make him deserve this? If he's been just kicked out of his mansion by his wife, why is the house in such a poor condition? Is it more than two years he's been away? Why ain't there any pool in his own backyard?
So, my assumption? A few years before the movie begins, Ned Merrill was a big shot of an executive, messing around with others, doing only what he wants (the tennis court instead of a swimming pool, the girls must've been pleased), selfish, ignorant, and unfaithful. For some reason, he got bankrupted and his wife, tired of his lies and unwilling to go on with a new life at a smaller scale, decided to leave him, taking her daughters with her. Enraged by this, Ned hit his wife, almost killed her, and therefore got committed to a mental institution, where he received heavy therapy, perhaps shock treatment. Released from the institution, he comes back to his old neighborhood, wandering around, brainwashed (maybe for days, that would explain his sun tan), with all remembrances of the drama wiped. As he decides to pay a visit to his friends at the first pool, his mind starts to trigger his memory
I love this movie so much it's hard for me to write any kind of in-depth analysis about it.... and the fact that other reviewers did it perfectly well doesn't encourage either.
One of the great strengths of this eerie film is that we'll never be revealed what happened to Ned Merrill and to his family, so that many viewers can figure out their version of the personal background story for Ned. Well, I'd like to try to figure out my own, just for fun.
1- Basic facts, given very early in the picture: Ned's been away for quite a long time, as it seems, something like two years. He appears to have been a big corporate executive in Manhattan, rich enough to live in some big mansion located in a wealthy neighborhood. He has a wife, Lucinda, and two daughters. Strangely enough, he only shows up dressed in swimming trunks, bare foot, without any car or vehicle of any kind. Even if he carries himself well, and seems in very good shape, he has a tendency not to answer questions about himself, his life, his family, or in the vaguest way. (Writing skills from John Cheever and the screenwriter: by giving these specific informations early, they're setting up the odd tone of the film.)
2- Derived facts or light extrapolations: Ned has problems to remain focused (even in the middle of a conversation), he seems "elsewhere", delusional. We're pretty sure he's subject to hallucinations, and we also get the point quickly he cannot see reality as it is. When confronted to hostile people, he looks astounded, totally surprised, as if woken up in an abrupt way. He then loses all his arrogant self-confidence, and at times runs away, literally. (The good filmmaking quality gives the audience the ability to often view things from three points of views: Ned's, his counterparts' - male or female, aged or young, friendly or hostile - and our external point of view.)
3- Interpretations and extrapolations: everybody seems to recognize Ned easily, from residents to employees, and even teenagers have recollections about him (fourth pool). Needless to say that Ned was some sort of a big man on campus, which could explain why few people will take a chance to push him out directly, only three actually. A kind of "The higher they rise, the harder they fall" situation is plausible, of course, but beside the obvious fact that Ned got bankrupted, other disturbing elements about him are revealed: his educational skills seem poor (he isn't paying much attention to the little boy's safety by the empty pool), he was a definitive womanizer and acting unfaithfully to his wife, while other people seemed aware of it (first pool), he is accused directly to be a crook (recreational center pool) and less than concerned by others' health (the encounter with the mother on third pool). We're also proposed to believe he was a kind of cynical jerk, unable to appreciate the simple pleasures of life, which he apparently can now (the race with the horse). And last but not least, he's portrayed as an actor of segregation (the surrealistic conversation with the African-American Rolls Royce driver) and a miser fellow, as well (sixth pool). (Rather than explaining things with long pieces of dialog, the counterparts' reactions to Ned's behavior and words build a precious indicator of Ned's past life and times.)
4- Questions: why do some people seem so uneasy when Ned's around? In a scene where he clumsily tries to seduce a woman who never met him before, the lady's husband takes her aside and as he whispers something to her hear, her face gets distraught instantly. Some other people won't hesitate to bully him (eighth pool), humiliate him, pity him or even insult him (the whole recreational center pool sequence). Why this violence? Do Ned's past acts make him deserve this? If he's been just kicked out of his mansion by his wife, why is the house in such a poor condition? Is it more than two years he's been away? Why ain't there any pool in his own backyard?
So, my assumption? A few years before the movie begins, Ned Merrill was a big shot of an executive, messing around with others, doing only what he wants (the tennis court instead of a swimming pool, the girls must've been pleased), selfish, ignorant, and unfaithful. For some reason, he got bankrupted and his wife, tired of his lies and unwilling to go on with a new life at a smaller scale, decided to leave him, taking her daughters with her. Enraged by this, Ned hit his wife, almost killed her, and therefore got committed to a mental institution, where he received heavy therapy, perhaps shock treatment. Released from the institution, he comes back to his old neighborhood, wandering around, brainwashed (maybe for days, that would explain his sun tan), with all remembrances of the drama wiped. As he decides to pay a visit to his friends at the first pool, his mind starts to trigger his memory