DVD Review: Swimming Pool

Swimming Pool (2003)
Directed by Francois Ozon
Starring Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance and Jean-Marie Lamour
MPAA: R
Grade: B+

Review by Scott Standish

Charlotte Rampling is fantastic in the new French thriller/mystery Swimming Pool. Rampling plays Sarah Morton, an English mystery writer that feels burned out and in need of a vacation. She stays at her publisher's summer home in the South of France. However, before long, the publisher's daughter returns to the house and decides to stay awhile.

Morton and the daughter are about as opposite as two people can get. Morton is repressed, the young girl is sexually adventurous and drinks to excess. As time progresses their relationship becomes more and more complex. What starts as intense dislike softens over time and they learn from each other.

The tone of Swimming Pool deftly changes midway, and the director steers this ship through some rather treacherous waters (no pun intended). I was pleasantly surprised by the script and the complex characterizations. Swimming Pool has confidence, yet never goes overboard (okay, that one was intended).

Part mystery, part thriller, Swimming Pool is a very good film that deserves a wider audience here in America.

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