Swimfan Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)September 9th, 2002
Swimfan
Rental and snacks (unless you love Jesse Bradford, then more)
I'll just be up front and tell you now, the reason my companion and I saw this movie was not because we were going to see something compelling, but because Jesse Bradford is in it. We love him! And if you too have an irrational adoration for Jesse Bradford (you know who you are) this movie is chock full of him looking cute, smoldering, intense, wet, happy, scared, shirtless, and remorseful. So for that, you get your money's worth. Also, as with Bring It On and Clockstoppers, he seems genuinely to have fun in his role. He's like a cute little Bruce Campbell with only the beginning seedlings of irony. And he's so CUTE!
There isn't a rabbit, there isn't technically a bathtub, but it's totally Fatal Attraction, make no bones about it. It stinks that we have to decry Ben Cronin's (Bradford) behavior, but just desserts can go too far, even for a cheater. I think they are even betting on the audience's relative familiarity with that movie to carry this one. In one sense, they seem to have been enjoying treading the "same movie originally starring Glenn Close, but with teens" ground already claimed by Cruel "Dangerous Liaisons" Intentions a few years ago. The problem with taking complex adult sexual situations and applying it to teenagers is that while the behavior is the same, the depth of motivation for their actions is missing. Of course, an 18 year old jock will consider bonking around on his high school girlfriend - he's 18! A married man and father (Michael Douglas) has a lot more to lose, and grownups also have many more resources for terrorizing. But to be fair, in the era of email and pagers and sophisticated teens, Swimfan has some stalking advantages never dreamed of by Close's Alex Forrest.
New student Erika Christensen (Traffic) as Madison Bell (fresh transfer from Laughing Academy) has the requisite curly blonde hair, but she has something much more: a doll-like face stamped with a half-drunk expression that is partly sensual and partly not-so-rooted in reality. The girlfriend Amy is played very nicely by Shiri Appleby - Shiri is pretty but not a supermodel, she looks nice and cool and normal and just what a guy like Ben Cronin (Bradford) needs. But Erika is one crazy tamale! She is so evidently looney that the film borders on parody - she lives in a spooky house, talks in a hypnotic voice, and wears vaguely outmoded clothes that remind one of Janet Leigh in Psycho. The trio work effectively together, but Erika is clearly insane from moment one.
Oh sure, there is plenty of stuff that makes you go "puh-leeze" but at the same time, Madison's behavior is just unpredictable enough that even when you just know she has done something, you're not sure what, or how...it keeps you interested. That and moments of false foreshadowing helps keep the movie watchable. The most effective part of the film is in the editing - whenever Madison gets some input that fractures her psyche in any way, the cuts and music indicate it in a just-this-side of corny way - but it works! It's done with multiple camera angles/takes on the same moment, like say, in a Terminator movie when something explodes, and they show it from 4 angles, except it's something little, like her saying "What?" to something she doesn't want to hear. Very cool, a little thing that makes a scene more tense and her nut-jobbiness more evident. Then they screw it up playing death metal when he's just swimming in a pool. What's that about?
I think better of it when I think of it as homage to a genuine thriller, than as a proper thriller in its own rite. The kids do a great job, but it's just too obvious that she is totally mad, even to a guy who has her hand in his swimtrunks.
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These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks.
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