Chris Pine's Most Personal Movie Is One Critics Hate

Sooner or later, many actors decide to test their prowess behind the camera. Anna Kendrick's directorial debut, "Woman of the Hour," earned immense praise from critics in 2023 and was picked up by Netflix. However, another famous face hasn't been quite as fortuitous, as Chris Pine's first foray into feature-film directing landed with a dud, according to critics.

"Poolman" premiered at TIFF 2023, like "Woman of the Hour," and was a real passion project for Pine, following up a popular turn in "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves." He not only directed "Poolman" but also played the lead role and co-wrote the screenplay. In a similar vein to "Chinatown," the film follows Darren (Pine), the titular pool cleaner who bakes in the sun and follows a zen routine. He's also heavily invested in his local city council, and when he's asked to investigate them, he gets wrapped up in a conspiracy.

Despite Pine's commitment to see the movie through, critics were not kind to it. In fact, Siddhant Adlakha from IndieWire wrote, "Pine's paranoid noir satire will likely go down as one of the worst films to play at any major festival in recent memory." Yikes. Things don't get much better from there, creating an inauspicious start to Pine's directorial career. 

Chris Pine previously mentioned how he came up with the idea for "Poolman" while working on "Wonder Woman 1984," but maybe this is one idea that should have stayed in drafts. It's not just professional critics who detested the movie, either. In addition to its 24% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has only earned a 20% rating from viewers on the Popcornmeter.

It's a shame because there's a lot of potential with the idea of turning "Chinatown" wacky with a stellar ensemble cast that includes Danny DeVito, Annette Bening, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. But critics were brutal in their reviews, such as Michael Rechtshaffen from The Hollywood Reporter writing, "It gets lost in the shrill goofiness of a concept, which, at best, feels like the sort of half-baked SNL character sketches that tend to get buried in the slot following the second musical performance." The only good thing Rechtshaffen could find in the movie is Stephen Tobolowsky's character and performance. 

As of right now, Chris Pine's worst-reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes is still 2006's "Just My Luck" with a 14% rating from critics, where he starred opposite Lindsay Lohan. However, "Poolman" is right behind it in second place.