Swimfan - La fille de la piscine

Having recently seen Jesse Bradford as Rene Gagnon in Clint Eastwood's Flags Of Our Fathers and been impressed I decided to check out Swimfan. It's a typical teen flick, a version in their age bracket of Fatal Attraction.

Jesse's the object of the obsession of Erika Christiansen, a most disturbed young woman who had a tragedy that most of the cast doesn't know about, but that truly unhinges her.

After Erika seduces Jesse in a steamy seduction scene at the high school pool, she enters his life in all sorts of unwanted ways. Jesse has a criminal past, but got himself into swimming and is set for an athletic scholarship in that sport. When one of Jesse's swimming teammates winds up dead in the selfsame swimming pool, he's looking mighty good for it to the police.

Swimfan is not a badly done teen flick and in Bradford one has a young Tyrone Power so Erika's obsession is understandable.

Hey, I think he looks a bit like Power, maybe Rob Lowe.

Ben Cronin (Jesse Bradford) is an ex-addicted in drugs athlete. He is disputing a participation in the Olympic games and joining Stanford University through swimming. He is in love with his girlfriend Amy Miller (Shiri Appleby) and is a good son, working with his mother in a hospital. When the young woman Madison Bell (Erika Christensen) joins his high-school, he is seduced by her and has an intercourse with her in the swimming pool. Madison chases him, but he turns her down. She becomes obsessed by him and turns his life in hell. This teen version of `Fatal Attraction' is very predicable, but is not a bad movie. The young cast has a good performance and this film is a good entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): `Fixação' (`Fixation')

This film succeeds because of Jesse Bradford. I remember him from Bring It On (another excellent performance), but it appears he's done lots of things. He's a great lead actor, and I can see him filling Tom Cruise / Ben Affleck style roles in a few years' time.

The film itself is a fairly respectable effort at a Fatal Attraction style relationship, with teen-thriller-genre elements of the misunderstood wierd guy, the new girl in town with a secret past, and so on. I can only think of one vaguely surprising moment (with Josh, in the pool) - otherwise it's fairly predictable, but enjoyable all the same.

Watching it, I couldn't help but wonder why the school's best swimmer and most attractive guy didn't have a bigger circle of friends (Josh the jock, Randy the drip, and a black girl with a chip on her shoulder (what an original character..).

Also, why would he be tempted by a girl who isn't quite as attractive (or as nice) as his girlfriend? - but I know that's often the case in real life, so I can let that go.

Finally, Jesse didn't need the whole 'troubled teen past' - in the places where it was used, it wasn't really necessary - and although I'm no fan of the family values lobby, I am thoroughly sick of the single-parent-family that seems to exist in every single movie these days. It's just a lazy way of adding to teen angst, and avoids the need to write convincing two-parent scenes.

Swimfan is fine, but is only really a stepping-stone movie onto bigger and (hopefully) better things for the lead actors.

Watched this movie recently with my roommates and we honestly had a good time. The nostalgia factor definitely helped as the storyline really doesn't hold up that much but I'd still recommend it for a chill night in we friends. Also whatever happened to that guy? It seems he was everywhere for a hot second and then completely vanished!

Have to admit that I enjoy watching the infamous teen horror films. Don't get me wrong, they probably won't be nominated for any Academy Awards, but they're not a waste of a movie ticket either.

Both Jesse Bradford and Erika Christensen carry the film well. Although much of the plot remains predictable, with a lot of help from the trailers, there are still a few plot twists that will keep viewers interested. Madison Bell (Christensen) is the new student who gets what she wants, at any cost. Obession can be a very interesting and intriguing game as she sets her sights on Ben Cronin (Bradford). However, Ben already has the perfect life as a high school student (a chance at Stanford, the perfect girl and a solid swimming career. Throw a monkey wrench into the equation, and Ben's world spins out of control.

A good movie to see on a date, or if City by the Sea isn't appealing. Leave the youngsters at home on this one.