I found this film listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I was keen to see it both for this reason, it had a good cast of British actors, and the critics gave it positive comments, directed by Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover). Basically the film centres on three generations of women, all called Cissie Colpitts, the mother (Joan Plowright), her daughter (Juliet Stevenson), and her niece (Joely Richardson), all of whom are married. Mother Cissie experiences dissatisfaction from her husband Jake (Bryan Pringle) and his philandering ways, she takes her silent revenge by drowning him in a bathtub. But senior Cissie is not the only one, her daughter Cissie II sends her husband Hardy (Trevor Cooper) to a watery grave drowning him in the ocean, and her granddaughter Cissie III ends the life of husband Bellamy (David Morrissey) drowning him in a swimming pool. With these deaths being successive order and all being the same cause of death, local coroner Henry Madgett (Barnard Hill) initially has questions for the three Cissies, they respond by making promises to sleep with him in exchange for his silence and recording the deaths as accidental. Local gossip starts to spread about the water-related deaths, Henry's teenage son Smut (Jason Edwards) comes to the aid three women, so it is them one side, and the doubting townspeople on the other. Throughout the film there are also invented games played, specifically including counting and numbers, going from 1 to 100 mostly, with the involvement of literature and astrology, these are seen played by the leading or supporting characters, or in the background. In the end, the three Cissies and Madgett make what it looks like a getaway from the town in a boat, they deliberately cause the boat to fill with water, the three women throw the objects representing their husbands into the water, while Madgett removes his clothing, but the women join forces to drown him, and swim away. Also starring John Rogan as Gregory, Paul Mooney as Teigan, Jane Gurnett as Nancy and Kenny Ireland as Jonah Bognor. Plowright, Stevenson and Richardson as the lethal scheming trio are delightful anti-heroes, Hill gets his time as well as the coaxed man deliberating and lying about their deaths, each husband probably deserves what is coming to them, and it is most funny to see the deadly action and cover-ups carried out, the number games and music by Michael Nyman add to it as well, a fantastic black comedy drama. Very good!
Review of Drowning by Numbers
