Learn To Swim (2021) – Review/ Summary (with Spoilers)

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While “Learn To Swim” may give you faint nostalgia for “Love Jones,” the music keeps you far more than the relationship drama.

Director(s)	Thyrone Tommy
Screenplay By	Marni Van Dyk, Thyrone Tommy
Date Released (Netflix)	8/15/2022
Genre(s)	Drama, Romance, Young Adult, Musical
Duration	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Content Rating	TV-MA
Noted Cast
Dezi	Thomas Antony Olajide
Selma	Emma Ferreira

This content contains pertinent spoilers.

Film Summary

Dezi has long been the type of musician who, when the time came to step up and take his career to new heights, he stepped away. The inconsistency doesn’t just exist in his professional career but in his love life too. Hence Selma, a fellow jazz musician, finding herself both enthralled by all Dezi could be yet pushed away by his inability to commit to anything, including himself.

Things To Note

• Reason(s) for Film Rating: Cursing (Occasionally), Violence (N/A), Sexual Content (Nudity and simulated sex), Miscellaneous (Drinking and smoking)

Character Descriptions

Please Note: This character guide is not an exhaustive list of every cast member, and character descriptions may contain what can be considered spoilers.

Dezi

A jazz sax artist who has notable talent, everyone can see and hear it. However, thanks to him often getting in his own way, nearly every great opportunity that comes his way either slips through his hands or he sabotages.

Selma

Selma is a jazz vocalist with a few other instrumental talents trying to break out and find a steady gig somewhere.

Review

Our Rating: Mixed (Divisive)

Highlights

The Music

Jazz is a style of music not used enough in films featuring romance. It represents the highs and lows, the chaos, and the tone set by the intro and outro of the movie helps you understand what you’re getting into. For “Learn To Swim” doesn’t have anyone swimming but the viewer as they deal with the tide and waves of Dezi’s past and present with women and his career. Sometimes to the point you can feel dizzy or like you’re drowning.

On The Fence

It’s Over In A Blink Of An Eye, And You’re Left Wondering What Did You Just Watch?

“Learn To Swim” isn’t a straightforward film. You can get Selma mixed up with another curly-haired woman, and you can get lost in whether you are in the past or present and the state of mind Dezi is in. It’s the kind of film that, if you look away for too long, it can make you wonder if you missed a lot.

However, not much seemingly does happen. There is self-loathing, one or two sex scenes, and music, and it is all so simple that it makes you wonder if there is more? Surely the only complication here can’t be the jumping back and forth in time, right? You had to have looked away too long and missed something, right?

It’s hard to say, and what we did catch didn’t call for a second viewing or a rewind. “Learn To Swim” has a wonderful soundtrack, but beyond that, it is a one-and-done kind of film.

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