Pools Christian Review
Pools is a haunting yet strangely liberating film. It follows Kennedy, a young woman whose world is crumbling around her. In the middle of her pain and confusion, she does something wild and reckless—she goes on a pool-hopping escape through the elaborate estates of her college town. But beneath the surface of this wild spree lies something far deeper: a desperate attempt to reconnect with her dead father and to find permission to truly live her own life.
What makes Pools powerful is how raw it feels. Kennedy’s grief is not neatly packaged, and her search for meaning doesn’t follow a predictable script. She runs, dives, swims, and wanders—almost as if every splash of water is a prayer, every jump is a cry to heaven: “Do I have the strength to keep going? Can I find freedom beyond my loss?”
From a Christian perspective, Kennedy’s journey echoes the psalms of lament. King David himself cried out in Psalm 42:7, “Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.” Grief often feels like drowning. Yet, even in that drowning, there is the possibility of God’s voice breaking through, calling us to the surface.
Water in Scripture is both terrifying and redemptive. It is the flood that destroyed, but also the waters of baptism that give new life. Kennedy’s pool-hopping feels reckless, yes, but it also becomes a metaphor: she is immersing herself again and again, perhaps unknowingly, in a search for cleansing, renewal, and resurrection.
The absence of her father is central to the story. It reminds us of the ache of fatherlessness that so many carry, both literally and spiritually. And yet, the Gospel assures us that in Christ, we are adopted into a family with a perfect Father who never leaves nor forsakes us (Romans 8:15–16). Kennedy’s longing for her earthly father mirrors humanity’s deeper longing for the embrace of our Heavenly Father.
By the end, Pools doesn’t tie everything into a neat bow. Instead, it leaves us with something even more valuable—an invitation to face our grief honestly, but also to see that life beyond grief is possible. The pools Kennedy dives into are not just physical—they’re symbols of the turbulent yet healing waters that carry us from death into life, despair into hope.
Pools is raw, messy, and deeply human. But in its brokenness, it whispers a truth Christians know well: even when everything falls apart, there is still a way forward, still a Father’s love waiting to catch us when we surface.
