Rating: 
Summary: Interesting characters, familiar literary twist
Review: Since others have described the film so well, I'll just add a couple of things. The tension between the 2 female characters is very interesting, and the twists that occur as things become more complicated are intriguing. I didn't find it boring at all, it has a French cinematic approach of a sense of real life rather than high drama, but there are some shocking personality quirks that appear, also very real. There's an atmospheric and environmental quality that is palpable and envelopes you in a sensuous, natural way. You can feel the place. It keeps coming back to you later, and the sex in it (which I found to be psychological rather than titillating) is part of the over-all natural sensuality. The story twists made me think of Ian McEwan's "Atonement", if you know that book and watch this, you'll understand. I gave it 4 stars instead of 3 because it was done well, not great, but after thinking I'd probably not watch it a second time, I found myself returning to it through the day with the same feeling of intrigue. Will probably watch it again, and have the feeling it may turn into one I'll go back to from time to time.
Rating: 
Summary: Lethargic psycho-sexual drama
Review: An aging female British writer meets -- or possibly imagines -- her publisher's sexually liberated daughter at the publisher's country home in the South of France. Nice photography and decent acting but the first half of the movie unfolds at an agonizingly slow pace, and the ending is muddled at best. You can't even call it a trick ending; it's more of a "what really happened?" ending ... and you don't really care!Ludivine Sagnier, the young French actress who plays Julie, is quite an erotic beauty and steals the show from tight-lipped Charlotte Rampling as the older woman. In fact, IMHO she's the only reason to watch this lethargic movie.
Rating:
Summary: Abandoment Issues
Review: Both Sarah and Julie have problems with the same man, Julie's father and Sarah's publisher John. Julie and her mom were dumped by John as he went on to persue other interests, one of whom was Sara who is now being eased out of the picture. Julie takes out her frustrations in a endless series of flings with older men while Sarah watches seethes and writes at the beautiful country home where John has invited them to vacation. A substitute for the absent John is found in a hapless waiter and funky dancer who bears the brunt of the girls pent up estrogen. A suprise ending reveals that little or none of our movie actually happened but is instead the plot of the book Sarah presents to John at the end. If you like this movie try "My House in Umbria" with Maggie Smith.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the time
Review: I found the movie to be painfully slow and boring, I actually fell asleep. Ludivine Sagnier is a beautiful young woman, but that isn't enough to carry this one. The two primary characters are so extreme and unbelievable, it really is awful.
Rating:
Summary: the creative process
Review: British novelist Sarah Morton is wealthy, successful and attractive. She's also bored, cynical, uptight and experiencing writer's block. So, at her smarmy publisher's suggestion, she retreats to his French villa to work on her next novel. She is just beginning to enjoy the peace and quiet and beautiful surroundings when, unexpectedly, her publisher's young, promiscuous daughter shows up. The two antagonize each other at first, but eventually form a tenuous friendship tinged with jealousy, sexual tension and strange mind games. What I loved about this film is that it gives the viewer some space and room to breathe. The film starts off slowly and subtly, gently setting the scene for what eventually escalates into a surprising and titillating thriller. However, as erotically charged as the film is, at its core this film is a fascinating study of a writer's imagination and creative process.
Rating:
Summary: Swimming Pool Drowns in Mediocrity
Review: The only thing I can think of that would be a larger waste of time than watching this stunningly boring, simply pedestrian piece of haughty, psuedo-intellectual Eurotrash would be settling down in front of the tube for seventy three minutes of static. There were far too few sexual encounters to balance the mind numbing "follow Sarah down the hall, follow Sarah into the kitchen, follow Sarah into the bedroom" camera work and during the steamiest of them, the only emotion I could muster was an overwhelming desire to get up and make myself a ham sandwich.
This film would be a lot more interesting if it were cut down to several still photographs of the young French beauty, Ludivine Sagnier, sunbathing in the nude and would have saved the film's financial backers the entire cost of production.
Rating: 
Summary: a genuine head scratcher
Review: ***1/2 One of the marks of a truly great performer is the ability to appear alone on screen for long periods of time - without the aid of other actors or even dialogue - and still create a fully-rounded, easily recognizable character, using nothing more than gestures, body language and facial expressions. Charlotte Rampling achieves just that sort of magic in "Swimming Pool," an odd little psychological thriller that makes "Adaptation" look like a model of clarity, coherence and comprehensibility in comparison. For the first twenty minutes or so, Rampling has the screen virtually all to herself and she definitely makes the most of the occasion. She plays Sarah Morton, a successful author of murder mysteries who's become bored with the restraints of her genre and now feels the need to branch out and try her hand at different and more rewarding types of writing. When her publisher offers her his villa in France as a place to get away and do some writing, Sarah jumps at the opportunity. Unfortunately, after only a few days there, Sarah finds her peace and solitude shattered by the unexpected arrival of her publisher's nymphomaniac daughter, Julie. Although there is initially a great deal of tension between the two women, a bizarre symbiotic relationship eventually develops, with Sarah secretly using Julie as the subject for her newest book and Julie feeding Sarah's morbid fantasies, first unconsciously, then consciously. For about two thirds of the film, writer/director Francois Ozon presents us with the classic - one might almost say stereotypical - conflict between a moralistic, sexually repressed, almost "frigid" British woman and a beautiful, uninhibited and sensual Continental nymphet. But, as the story progresses, a certain personality transference begins to take place, with Sarah taking on some of the traits of the girl she professes to despise and Julie finding a way to "help" Sarah complete her novel. I can't say that I completely understand the last half hour or so of the film, although I do suspect that the answer lies somewhere along the line of last year's "Adaptation," which also dealt with the art of writing and the strange blending of the real and the surreal, of truth and fantasy that often accompanies the act. Suffice it to say that you will either go with the film all the way to the end or tune out at about the 70-minute point. In addition to Rampling's amazing performance as the uptight middle-aged woman (one recalls, with a certain wistful amusement, that, in 1966's "Georgy Girl," it was SHE who played the promiscuous femme fatale), the film offers us the beautiful and talented Ludivine Sagnier as Julie, a street smart kid who knows how to exploit her sex appeal for all its worth yet who occasionally displays moments of childlike tenderness and vulnerability beneath the hardened surface. You may end up scratching your head at the end of "Swimming Pool," but I guarantee it will get you thinking.
Rating: 
Summary: Shibby
Review: This movie is not too shabby. And the movie is a great thriller.
Rating:
Summary: good movie
Review: I have no idea why some people say that this movie is bad. I mean the movie is impressive and the girl on the bikini looks hot.
Rating:
Summary: swimming pool is worth it!
Review: THIS MOVIE WAS EXCELLENT I COULDN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE YOU IN FOR A TREAT IT'S ABOUT TIME FOR SOME OLD SCHOOL LOVING (CHARLOTTE RAMPLING) FOR INSTANCE (SMILE)
|
