‘Swim to Me’ (2025) Netflix Movie Review - Functional, Plain, and All Right

Dominga Sotomayor's Swim to Me/Limpia is the kind of movie you don't mind watching, but afterward, you also don't think much about it. It's based on Alia Trabucco Zerán's book, which I haven't read, but a quick Google search has piqued my curiosity about it. The novel, from what I understood, is an investigative thriller in which the maid is interrogated after the death of her señor and señora's daughter. Zerán apparently goes through her characters' past and present in great detail to reveal something rotten in the master-servant relationship. We also learn minor yet essential details, such as that the maid was hired through an ad and had been working in the house for almost seven years. The book, in other words, seems better than the film because in the latter, everything is displayed as a fact that must be rigidly accepted. How did Cristobal (Benjamin Westfall) and Mara (Ignacia Baeza) hire Estela (María Paz Grandjean)? Doesn't matter. How long has she been working for them? None of our business. What matters to Sotomayor is that Estela is a maid, Cristobal and Mara are her bosses, Julia (Rosa Puga Vittini) is their daughter, and the audience must welcome this arrangement without asking too many questions.

Cristobal and Mara are busy parents. They dedicate so much of their time to their work that they have little to spend on their daughter. Mara can assert that she is Julia's mother, but ask Julia, and she will tell you that it's Estela who provides maternal warmth to her. The maid feeds the kid, takes her to swimming practice, and even tucks her into bed at night. During the New Year Party, both Estela and Julia find themselves detached from their surroundings. It seems as if the two of them don't fit in with the crowd and have no interest in being present in the guests' company. What do they do? They go inside Estela's room and have their own quiet, mini-party for a bit. When a dog bites Julia, it's Estela who takes her to the hospital (with the help of her new boyfriend, Carlos, played by Rodrigo Palacios). If you want to know how much distance there is between Julia and her parents, let me tell you that Mara doesn't learn about the dog bite incident until Julia explicitly mentions it. As for why she mentions it, there is a reason behind this decision, and it's made intentionally.

The one question that lingers in your mind after the movie is this: Who is Estela? For Sotomayor, she is a sad, lonely housemaid in need of love, sex, a vacation, and companionship. But is this enough? Did Estela have other dreams that she had to give up eventually? It soon becomes evident that she doesn't exactly love Mara and Cristobal, but did these feelings exist from the beginning, or did they accumulate over time? Estela has a brother, who apparently is some kind of criminal, though the specifics of his crimes are left unstated in the film. How did he end up in prison? What drove him towards delinquency? Estela passively watches animal documentaries on TV, though what she learns from them and what she thinks about them are things that Sotomayor doesn't bother discovering. Sotomayor, unintentionally, acts like Cristobal and Mara — she keeps her relationship with her characters purely professional and businesslike. She only shows interest in having basic information about them, and that information is just enough for the director to make a watchable movie. Sotomayor, like a master, draws a line between herself and her characters, who could as well be her servants — the people who help bring the filmmaker's vision to life.

That vision, alas, is merely serviceable—just okay, really. Sotomayor dots her i's and crosses her t's. A gun and an electric fence scream payoff at the right time. However, all this only makes her an obedient, earnest filmmaker, which is what renders Swim to Me so functional, plain, and all right. It does what it does; it means what it means. The movie's attempts to address issues of inequality and class divide are obvious and trite. Filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho have explored this territory many times with far greater skill. Sotomayor, in comparison, takes baby steps with Swim to Me. What she strives for is a pat on the back for her "intent" and "subtlety." She wants recognition for being a good student who adheres to the textbook and follows all the guidelines. While Sotomayor earns an A for effort, I hope to see her create a better, if not a great, film. I would definitely want something like that to...swim to me.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times