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Swimming Pool (2002)

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Bored by her successful series of crime mysteries, uptight British novelist Rampling agrees to take a break in her publisher's Provençal holiday home, and finds the relaxed paradise creatively stimulating until his teenage daughter (Sagnier) turns up unannounced. Tensions and jealousies develop, coming to a head when the promiscuous girl brings home a handsome local waiter the older woman has been slowly befriending. For all its many twists (which by the end probably become a little perplexing for the inattentive), Ozon's film is predictable and derivative: why do blocked crime writers always fantasise themselves into a scenario which will restore creativity, and when is a swimming pool movie not about the return of the repressed? Moreover, some of the scenes in English are clumsily written and performed, and several details are downright implausible (has Ozon any idea how the publishing world functions?). Yorick Le Saux's sumptuous camerawork succeeds in building a mood of febrile sensuality, but can't compensate for the superficiality of the film's hackneyed premise.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

Cathy Montague said...

Posted on Jul 10 2011 11:06 The best thing about this film is Charlotte Rampling, who's still very watchable. Her role is more than a little stereotyped, though she does her best at playing someone uptight. The denouement of the film is highly improbable and unconvincing, and we aren't prepared for the mutual hostility between the two main female characters to morph into conspiratorial chumminess. Still, at least the first three quarters of the film are definitely watchable.

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Doris Fairweather said...

Posted on Apr 05 2010 23:21 Can anyone explain me the completely unbelievable outcome? it left me baffled and frustrated

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