The transformative power of water lies at the heart of American writer Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, informed by her adolescent dreams of swimming being her escape from an abusive childhood home. The Chronology of Water tracks the tides of her life as she battles addiction, abuse, and the lingering scars from a sexually violent upbringing. It’s heavy material, and Yukanvitch’s stylised prose doesn’t naturally lend itself to adaptation, but it’s easy to see why her story appealed to Kristen Stewart for her directorial debut. Yuknavitch’s defiant spirit seems to mirror Stewart’s own kicking back against Hollywood for its repeated attempts to box her in.
Imogen Poots carries the weight of the film as Lidia, from a wide-eyed teenager clawing out from under her father’s thumb to a celebrated writer and English teacher, through turbulent romances, personal crises and her continued reckoning with the desperate sadness of her childhood. Water – in lakes, pools, bathtubs and tears – offers a source of physical and metaphorical cleansing (in the opening scene we see bright red blood swirl down a shower drain while Lidia cries in pain) and Stewart adopts the same five chapter structure as her source material: Holding Breath, Under Blue, The Wet, Resuscitations and The Other Side of Drowning. There’s a loose timeline in place, though the narrative slips and slides through Lidia’s memories, fragmented and shifting, as she tries to find order in chaos.
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Stewart’s directorial debut doesn’t lack ambition; the opaqueness of the timeline and grainy, 16mm emphasise the dreamlike nature of Yuknavitch’s prose, though the film’s tendency to repeat images becomes a little tiring. The continual noise and narration also create a claustrophobic feeling that threatens to overwhelm the narrative, with little room given for the weight of Lidia’s words to breathe. If the intent is to create a film as stifling and chaotic as Yuknavitch’s story this is achieved, but the film sags under the weight of its many artistic flourishes.
But there’s a potent earnestness about The Chronology of Water – Stewart shows a deep empathy for her subject, and Yuknavitch’s memoir is transformed with an unapologetic confidence. Sex, violence, fear and joy: Lidia feels it all, and feels it all deeply. Her transformative experience working with Ken Kesey (Jim Belushi) is particularly tender; it’s here she finds confidence in her writing, while later, exploring her sexuality on her own terms finally allows Lidia the freedom her father tried desperately to deny. It’s an imperfect but compelling first feature, bolstered by Poots’ committed performance, even with the distracting bells and whistles of a filmmaker trying things out for the first time. But if this is a statement of intent about Stewart’s filmmaking future, there might be a truly great film in her yet.
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