Swimming Pool Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)July 16th, 2003
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François Ozon was once considered the enfant terrible of French cinema. Then he made the critically praised and very adult Under the Sand, and followed it up with last year's musical murder-mystery 8 Women. In his latest, Swimming Pool, Ozon has finally found a way to effectively blend the terrifying imagery of his earlier work (like Criminal Lovers - his twisted modernization of Hansel and Gretel) with the accomplished skill displayed in Sand.
Pool is also Ozon's first (mostly) English-language film, and its initial setting is London, where we see author Sarah Morton (Sand's Charlotte Rampling) snub a fan while riding the tube to her publisher's office. Sarah has written a series of popular murder investigation novels featuring a character called Inspector Dorwell but now finds herself in one deep rut. She's fed up with her creation and can't bear to go through the same old motions in a new Dorwell adventure, even if it will thrill her fans and make her a fistful of euros.
Sarah's publisher John (Charles Dance) thinks she simply needs a change of scenery and suggests she make use of his villa in the south of France. So she ditches the dreary grays of London and heads for the sunny chateau, where the warm hues eventually begin to melt her icy demeanor. The occasional smile even crosses Sarah's lips as she starts to bang out a new Dorwell story on her laptop...but her peace and quiet is quickly interrupted by an unexpected visitor.
John's free-spirited teenage daughter Julie (8 Women's Ludivine Sagnier) shows up one night and turns Sarah's serene setting on its ear. The solitude is replaced by loud music, loud sex with a string of ugly Frenchmen, and even louder bikinis...when Julie bothers to wear them (which is, like, hardly ever). The two butt heads like houseguests on Big Brother but inevitably find a way to get along without resorting to any kind of Freaky Friday-type absurdity. Sarah even ditches her latest Dorwell story and starts writing something inspired by what could only be called a growing obsession with Julie.
Saying more about Pool's plot would give too much away, since it's one of those films with a Hitchcockian kind of twist. At least I think there's a twist. The clues are presumably all there, but Ozon keeps distracting us with the perpetually nude Sagnier (he's as much of a tease as her Julie is). Pool will most likely be a picture where the women will have to explain what happened to the men on the way out, as they're gathering their unfurled tongues off the theatre floor and pushing their spring-loaded eyes back into their sockets.
Ozon, who seems to have a fondness for titles pertaining to water, is blessed with solid performances from both Rampling (who looks like she could be Selma Blair's mom) and Sagnier (who looks considerably older than she did in 8 Women, or Ozon's Water Drops on Burning Rocks - and FYI, she's going to be Tinkerbell in the new live-action Peter Pan). While Sagnier might get the most attention for showing the most skin, the show is Rampling's to steal, with her Sarah slowly uncovering her emotions as the titular pool itself gets uncovered.
1:42 - R for strong sexual content, nudity, language, some violence and drug use
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
