Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: This is the worst movie I've seen in a long while. The plotlines are not developed, yet the movie feels so slow. I kept watching with the hope that it would get interesting (that, and I hate not finishing a movie) but it just fell flat. I'd say don't bother with this movie unless you want to waste 100 minutes of your life.
Rating: 
Summary: Spellbinding and intriguing
Review: This movie remains one of the most interesting films I have seen in recent years. I was captivated by the questions it asks about the line between fantasy and reality, the power of the imagination to create your OWN reality, and whether the two can ever meet.Others have covered the basic plot of the story in some detail. I was very impressed by Charlotte Rampling's performance of a difficult role; her ability to convey undercurrents and say things without speaking, by the way she moves, or the changes in her face, is stunning. The undercurrents are very important generally in this movie--like the surface of the water, what is underneath is not always immediately revealed. Overall, a masterpiece of understatement that gives viewers credit for intelligence, and the ability to put the necessary pieces together for themselves.
Rating: 
Summary: exotic and erotic
Review: Yes this movie was odd. Yes it had a strange ending, and yes there was nudity. So get over it.
If you need to be force-fed a plot of garbage just go to the local cineplex where you will have at least 4 options from which to choose. Or go to Blockbuster for a "family friendly" dud about heroic football players or other misogynistic fare. But if that's your thing don't rent or even watch this.
If you do like beautiful locales, interesting actors and actresses, (whether nude or not what does it matter) and an ending that will make you think for a minute than you will probably find this rewarding. A British mystery writer takes a reprieve from rainy London to get new creative ideas for her next novel. Her somewhat sympathetic editor lends her the use of his vacation home in France and the story begins.
I don't want to give away any spoilers here because I'm afraid if I give any more description I will. The story is somewhat slow paced but if you are patient it will pay back in full. Besides that the actors in this film are fascinating to watch, as we try to figure out their thoughts and plans.
Rating:
Summary: Julie et Sade
Review: I did find this film excellent, especially Charlotte Rampling's acting (and, by God, I wish I looked as good as she does -- she must be roughly my age.) I will not repeat comments that others have made here. I was just a bit surprised that nobody mentioned the obvious reference to Sade, whose castle in ruins is located close to the house where Sarah Morton is staying. And it is obviously no coincidence that the young oversexed vixen who appears on the scene is named "Julie" -- one of Sade's works is titled "Juliette."
Rating: 
Summary: Let's call this movie.. Swimming Pool.
Review: WHY? Well there is a swimming pool in the movie. There is also a house. Why not call it House? Oh, that title was taken. No matter what title you give it, it's still boring. Let's see.. a woman goes to dinner, she walks around the house, she sits at her computer, she meets a young whore with nice breast, spys on her and her numerous male callers, then you get an unexciting conclusion and no rewards are offered. I saw the trailer for the movie and thought it seemed mysterious. It wasn't what I hoped.
Rating:
Summary: Not Much Action
Review: This is not soft-core porn. If you are looking for that DO NOT but this movie. The chick is hot but there is only 1 sex scene and it sucks.
Rating:
Summary: A Psychological Jigsaw Puzzle
Review: I think SWIMMING POOL is one of those films that you either love or hate. Some people are going to find it too rambling and open-ended while others, like me, will find it mesmerizingly claustrophobic and psychologically thrilling. When Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling) begins to feel stressed, her publisher suggests that she take a much needed holiday at his villa in the Luberon of Provence. Sarah, of course, agrees and the film is off to a cinematically beautiful, if slow, start. It is at her publisher's villa that Sarah begins a new book, with new vigor, and then runs into a stumbling block (or so we're led to think) in the form of the publisher's daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier). Julie, who is addicted to "fun" and "wild times" certainly isn't in the south of France for rest and relaxation like Sarah. I fact, Julie immediately begins to indulge in a series of one night stands that irk Sarah and the tension between the two women, neither of whom is particularly likable...at least at this point, grows. There isn't a lot of plot in SWIMMING POOL; this is definitely a character-driven, psychological tour de force, so people who require a lot of action or adventure in the films they watch should really choose something else instead. It is only when Sarah begins to write about Julie and her life that the "sort of" plot begin to make sense. It is also at this point that the timbre of SWIMMING POOL changes, from slow and hallucinatory to something that includes some very clever (and surprising) plot twists. The camera angles also become dizzyingly provocative. Viewers must remember that SWIMMING POOL cannot be taken too literally; that things are definitely not always what they seem. SWIMMING POOL is definitely a mixture of fact and fantasy, the real and the imagined. Viewers must always be on guard for the next twist, the next shift in the balance of power. I especially loved Charlotte Rampling's performance in SWIMMING POOL, and most of all, her metamorphosis near the film's end. I think she and Ozon work particularly well together and I loved her in UNDER THE SAND (another Rampling/Ozon collaboration). As other reviewer's have noted, SWIMMING POOL has a very Hitchcockian feel, yet it is totally original and not a copy of Hitchcock at all. Hitchcock gave us psychological studies; SWIMMING POOL is more of a psychological puzzle and I think many viewers will wonder just what to make of it. SWIMMING POOL is essentially a film about relationships, more specifically, the relationship between Sarah and Julie and how it develops, twists and turns. This is a sophisticated movie, for sophisticated viewers and one that will provoke much thought about the art of creative process...not just Ozon's, but Sarah's as well.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, classy thriller
Review: Not only is this thriller mesmerizing and erotic, but I found it intensely human, thanks to the acting of Charlotte Rampling. As the centerpiece and life-force of the film, she puts an at once compassionate but also desperate face on the events that unfold around her. The film is wonderfully shot and well edited. The ending will have you and your friends talking for quite a while!
Rating:
Summary: "I'm not who you think I am."
Review: Those are the first words we hear in director Francois Ozon's mostly English-language film, Swimming Pool, starring Charlotte Rampling (as Sarah, a repressed P.D. James-type writer of "murder, sex, and violence" novels) and Ludivine Sagnier (as Julie, Sarah's publisher's sensual French daughter).
Sarah's publisher (and former lover) lets her use his house in the Luberon to recharge her batteries. (He really just wants to get rid of her.) Peter and Annie Mayle may be enjoying their light-hearted Year in Provence farther down the road, but Swimming Pool is more David Lynch than Jacques Tati. Sagnier is beautiful, as any young woman her age would be, but is also more in command of her character's emotions than any ten actresses who regularly play similar roles in American erotic thrillers. The risks Sagnier takes with her face are more daring than the displays of her body by the swimming pool or while having sex with strangers. But Swimming Pool is Charlotte Rampling's movie. It's the middle-aged writer Sarah who dismisses a mystery fan who recognizes her on the London Tube with the warning, "I'm not who you think I am." So who is she? As Sarah reacts to Julie's taunts and promiscuity while they share the house in France, we - - and Sarah - - learn the answer. There's a murder and a cover-up, and you wonder if you're seeing the usual noir-ish set-up of an innocent party, but Sarah herself is the real mystery. Swimming Pool is a thriller, like Clouzot's Les Diaboliques, for adults, not for an audience that wants to be sedated by the latest comic-book adventure.
We watch Sarah change from a buttoned-up Englishwoman wearing grays and scarves twisted around her neck to a more European woman, wearing brighter clothes, showing more of her body, more satisfied with her own free (not just in the sexual sense) nature. She's given her new book, entitled Swimming Pool, based on Julie's secrets and perhaps her own, to a different publisher, not to Julie's father, who doesn't even comprehend her art. ("I don't understand what you're trying to say.") But Sarah says her detective inspector will be back, too, as good as ever. She's reconciled the need for control with the need for abandon. Sarah has thrown herself into the pool. It's no longer a cesspool of germs and filth. As Julie tells her, it just has a little dirt and some leaves in it.
Rating:
Summary: Well done.
Review: I am not always able to see a movie through to its end, but this one held my attention fully. It centers around a middle-aged English crime novel writer who finds herself with a bit of writer's block and more than a bit of (?) mid-life crisis.
Anyway, she escapes to her publisher's French country house to find a place to unwind and to re-engage her writing drive. Indeed, she finds that and more. In a story of interpersonal (and inter-generational) tension, crime and passion, set in an absolutely beautiful French village, this story builds to a more and more unpredictable climax. To say there is a plot twist would be to understate the matter. To say it is an entertaining film would be dead-on accurate. Enjoy!
| 
