Swimming Pool

Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, Jean-Marie Lamour
Directed by: Francois Ozon
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Mystery
2003

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A writer (Charlotte Rampling) goes to her publisher's vacation home for some quiet to write her next book. There, she meets his promiscuous daughter (Ludivine Sagnier), which threatens her solitude.

Review:

Tim: Swimming Pool is an interesting movie. For most of the film, it seems like a straightforward drama. Their are some interesting relationship dynamics, but everything seems normal. Then, in the last few minutes, there's an unexpected event that is confusing and makes you rethink everything you've seen up to that point. The movie definitely has an unexpected conclusion that gives the film greater depth than you would think. Still, the movie didn't impress me too much.

For most of the film, we watch the odd relationship between a writer and the daughter of her publisher. Both are staying at the same vacation home, expecting to be there alone. Their reluctant living arrangement makes for some interesting drama. The writer is very prim and proper, choosing to live out her fantasies in her crime fiction. The daughter is a free spirit, bringing home a different guy every night and living without reservations or concerns. The two could not be more different. It was interesting to watch them cohabitating, certainly unliking each other, but not enough to actually leave. Their dynamic is pretty fascinating and it keeps us interested for much of the film.

While not a lot happens during the bulk of the film, the quiet moments are no less interesting. I was intrigued by the relationship between these two women and what they represented for each other. This wasn't overly fascinating, but it did hold my interst. I felt like this was at least a decent film.

In the third act, things start to get more unexpected. There's a few odd moments and a shocking event that turns the film upside down. I wasn't expecting it because it felt so out of place with the tone of the rest of the movie. This moves the film in a completely different, unexpected direction, which leads up to the aforementioned crazy conclusion.

I'm all for endings that turn everything we know on its head and make us rethink the entire film, but I didn't love this conclusion. One, it felt a bit too ambiguous. It could have meant any number of things, but it didn't even point us in a good direction. My initial reaction was one of confusion. Only after mulling over the events of the film and doing some online research did the possibilities start to make sense to me. It's certainly a level ending, but one that felt less than satisfying.

Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier were both quite good in the film. They make their characters seem real, and the relationship between their characters was so interesting because of the way they played off each other. They are both good in the movie, and it helps the quality of the film.

Swimming Pool was a decent movie, but it never felt great to me. The twist came out of left field, and not only made you rethink the film, but partially made the journey feel a bit disingenuous. I felt like I had been tricked, and the changes I saw in the characters were illegitimate. It is certainly an interesting movie, but I certainly didn't love it in the least. Still, it's different from most movies, and I wouldn't steer people clear of it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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