POOL

A disaffected Hollywood megastar flees from L.A. and the movie he's making to seek refuge in a Vermont haven for kindred spirits- -in UCLA film graduate Sahgal's first, distressingly feeble novel. Emery Roberts arrives unannounced at Jeremiah's hideaway with his sidekick, the camcorder-toting Danny, having decamped from the set in secret after breaking up with his lover/manager Danielle. The house is a mess due to renovations, with a full complement of misfits in residence: Nathan the red-hot screenwriter, interested only in building a pool for himself by hand and in eradicating the population of snapping turtles in Jeremiah's lake; Louis the ex- talent agent, drinking his way through nights and days while his ambitious actress girlfriend sleeps her way to the top; and Anne, Jeremiah's sister, no less dissipated than the rest but ready to offer solace to Emery in his near-catatonic state of loneliness. Hollywood soon catches wind of the errant star's whereabouts, prompting a visit from his producer—who happens to be Jeremiah's father—and Danielle, but when they fail to persuade Emery to return to the movie, they bring the movie to him. In between binges, backbiting, and bouts of pool-digging, the filming continues, with the star once again compliant; and by the time the shoot is finished, his career is back on track—with no one the wiser, or especially interested, as to why. A dialogue-driven brat-pack clone without the bile: a vapid trashing of Tinseltown types achieving the dubious honor of being even more inconsequential than the feckless, shallow characters it depicts.