Swimfan - La fille de la piscine

True it's not the best movie. And it is another fatal attraction with teens. But believe me it's a good movie. There are some flaws. But you should judge for yourself. It has good suspense, great performance by Erika Christianson. And Shiri is doing good on her carrer. It is another cheesy teen movie, but this is a good one. So over all, I'm not going to say this is the best movie, but it was worth $5.00. Like I said judge for yourself. Don't believe the bad reviews. Just go have fun. You won't regret it.

6/10

I would like to say that this movie hasn't got many reasons to be as good as it is, because it is a teen/twentysomething play on a formula that's kind of, or for lack of a better phrase truly, been done to death. Fatal Attraction movies, while occasionally pulling at least one different trick out of their hat, are always the same, that's why Michael Douglas is in 95% of them. However, it's extremely well made by director John Polson and well-acted by the young cast, particularly Traffic's Erika Christensen, who shines as Madison Bell, the obsessive swim fan of the title.

The story deals with Ben Cronin, a high school senior who's life is going pretty well, as the hero's usually is at the start of these pictures, he has a lot of good friends, he has a girlfriend Amy (Shiri Appleby) who is as sweet as apple pie, and he's on the way to a swimming scholarship to Stanford. However, all of that changes once he encounters Madison Bell, the seductive new girl in town. He only wants to be friends with her, but after they have a one night stand, she becomes more obsessive, stalking him, ruining every aspect of his life, and generally acting like a nuisance. I suppose I don't have to say that because that is pretty much how a Fatal Attraction picture works.

What makes this movie work is that it is well done, and it is as creepy as most FA clones need to be if they expect to work. Plus, the three leads are all very good, albeit this film belongs to Erika Christensen, who does a pretty good job of stealing the movie.

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 (Bradford) is one of those high schoolers that almost had it all: plenty of good friends, a sweet girlfriend (Appleby), and the swimming skills of a champion. His life and success track are scrambled, however, with the introduction to Madison Bell (Christensen), a vixen who becomes smitten with him. Madison seduces Ben in the pool one night, and while he feels guilty after a session of horizontal watersports, Masison goes Glen Close in Fatal Attraction crazy when he turns her down, and the movie starts to turn.

From the previews, Swimfan looked like a bad movie, an "Attraction" set in high school suburbia with Michael Douglas' role as a swim fanatic instead of a businessman. While the last third of the picture veers off heavily into the land of the un-yielding female revenge cliche, the first two-thirds of the film are actually a pretty provocative, tight character study with issues of infidelity and confidence. Christensen, who made a startling breakout role as a judge's intoxicated daughter in 2000's Traffic, plays it rather straight and sensual, which gives the film a boost, until her over-the-top climax, and shows that, in a B-movie sort of showcase, she can hold her own. B-

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!