Swimmer (2005)

An eleven-year-old girl awakens to the turbulence below the tranquil surface of her family and their Maryland maritime community.

When an acute ear condition strikes young Emma, sidelining her from swimming and damaging her hearing, her other senses kick into overdrive. Allowing the audience to look at Emma’s family and its challenges from her perspective, we soon realize that this is a special, sensitive young girl - but her imaginative interior life cannot protect her from life’s complexities. A special friendship develops between Emma and an emotionally unstable young woman (Sarah Paulson) who returns to their small town and subsequently reignites a dormant rivalry between Emma’s brothers (Shawn Hatosy and Michael Mosley). Emma’s father Will (Robert Knott) has always supported the family as a waterman, hauling Chesapeake shellfish. It’s a tough way of making a living, and his love of the drink is beginning to take its toll. Emma’s mother, Julia (the always understated but powerful Cherry Jones) is the quiet, strong matriarch keeping the family together as the financial pressures of Emma’s impending surgery and Will’s meltdown take their insidious toll on the family - and their community.