REVIEW: ‘Mermaid’ Makes A Memorable Splash

Mermaid is the story of Doug (Johnny Pemberton), a fish enthusiast trapped in a spiral of addiction. He’s just lost his job cleaning the aquarium at a strip club, his daughter Layla (Devyn McDowell) is entirely indifferent to his existence, and he’s dangerously in debt to drug dealer Ron (Robert Patrick). Desperate, he contemplates suicide but is prevented from going through with it by the discovery of an injured mermaid (Avery Potemri).

She isn’t your classic Disney mermaid, but Doug is smitten anyway. In his own words, he doesn’t understand women but knows everything there is to know about saltwater fish.

So, a fanged, muck-vomiting monstrosity that is just as interested in eating Doug as romancing him is still preferable to traditional dating. He names her Destiny, nurses her back to health, and the two form something resembling a bond. But Destiny’s presence only further complicates Ron’s threats and Doug’s relationship with Layla.

Tyler Cornack struggles to find his footing but figures it out by the end.

Writer/director Tyler Cornack is clearly not interested in catering to anyone’s tastes but his own. But he does at least manage to exercise some restraint here. Believe it or not, this is the most mainstream project he’s ever done. His previous two features both stemmed from his absurdist web series Tiny Cinema and featured premises like autoerotic home invasion and a serial killer who murders his victims by shoving them up his butt. Mermaid is, for lack of a better word, grounded. Or at least more grounded than Cornack is used to.

Johnny Pemberton’s Doug is deeply human in his flaws, despite having a fish person living in his bathtub. A big part of this is Pemberton’s performance, which always manages a straight face even under a barrage of ridiculous situations. But it’s also easy to see Cornack actively trying to stop himself from taking the script too far. The film is certainly a dark comedy. But the dramatic beats clearly matter here, and the writer/director is clearly cognizant that his typical approach is over the top for this circumstance.

Does this attempt at control consistently work? Not quite. Mermaid‘s pacing is all over the place, and the film clearly struggles to handle the transition between big and small moments. The uneven score, which Cornack composed, doesn’t help either. But the film finds its footing as it approaches the climax and really comes into its own during the third act. And Pemberton, who has never led a feature before but clearly has the talent for it, is more than capable enough of carrying the film through its clumsiest moments.

Mermaid is a love letter to Florida.

Avery Potemri is excellent as the titular creature, though equal credit must be given to makeup effects artist Trudie Storck for her fantastic creature design. Destiny looks far better (and far scarier) than one would expect from a production this size, and it does wonders for establishing both Doug’s desperation and the film’s steadily increasing stakes.

Patrick is an excellent villain (though the script clearly doesn’t allow him to chew as much scenery as he wants). And the supporting performances by Kevin Nealon, Kirk Fox, and Kevin Dunn keep the film sufficiently lighthearted when it risks getting too dark.

The film’s opening titles announce themselves as a love letter to Florida. Anyone who loves Florida might see that professing your love for a place via a film about death, addiction, and despair might seem counterintuitive. In Mermaid, Cornack succeeds in convincing viewers why it’s possible to look at bizarre hopelessness and find joy and love. Despite everything, he manages to get viewers to transfer some of that joy and love onto Doug. And if Cornack can manage that, he can get people to believe anything. It’s going to be fun seeing what he comes up with next.

Mermaid is in theaters now.