Learn to Swim

The real treat here is the fabulous original music, sometimes in the background, but more often performed.

It’s a slight and simple story, but the way it’s folded into the music lends it weight and scale.

Just like a jazz tune, the film establishes an image, elaborates on it and brings it back to a more-or-less satisfying close.

Tommy just riffs freely, aping the moody, improvisatory style of classic jazz as he works some rich variations on the all-too-common story of an artist knocked around by a rough romance.

Learn to Swim is lovely to behold, but the sullen artist at the center feels too often like he’s drowning in melancholia and might take us down with him.