| Overall Grade: |
C+ |
|
| Story: |
C |
|
|
| Acting: |
B+ |
|
|
| Direction: |
B- |
|
|
| Visuals: |
B- |
|
|
Cheesy thriller, but very well-acted.
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Jan 27, 2004
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
Swimfan stars Jesse Bradford as Ben Cronin, the high school swimming champ who's gearing up for the big competition that could determine his future. He's got a great, steady and very supportive girlfriend in Amy (Shiri Appleby), a girl he's truly in love with. But his life begins to dissipate when the sultry Madison Bell (Erika Christensen) arrives. After meeting a few times, Ben has sex with her, but completely regrets it afterward. He tries to break it off with Madison, not knowing she's a psychopath who won't take "no" for an answer.
Swimfan is actually not a bad movie, for the most part, at least. The first half-hour, though a little slow, does a very credible job of establishing its three lead characters. Ben is a relatively smart, likeable guy, and even when he lets his pants do his thinking and we berate him for it, it's easy to forgive him just because of how good a performance Bradford turns in. Seriously, I'm surprised this guy isn't in more films, he's at least a dozen times the actor Freddie Prinze, Jr. is and twice as handsome.
As for the two young women in his life, Shiri Appleby is so sweet and loveable as Amy, you just want to hug her. Already, the story loses some credibility since I couldn't believe a guy could actually cheat on her, and unfortunately, Erika Christensen was not able to convince me otherwise. Not only is she not as pretty as Appleby, she also emanates this creepy vibe that would turn off most guys I know, myself included. To her credit, though, this vibe works in her favor when the film switches from teen angst drama to thriller.
The second half-hour is actually quite entertaining, even if it's packed with cliches. Ben's life is falling apart, all because of Madison, who's showing her vile ways by doing such nasty things as threatening to reveal their night of passion to Amy and getting Ben kicked off the swim team. Director John Polson even manages to pull off some decent suspense here and there, particularly when Ben sneaks into Madison's house to find out more about her past. Even though we realize we've seen this material before, it's still pretty fun to watch.
I'd actually considered giving this a B-, but the last ten or so minutes kept this film firmly at middling (but perfectly watchable) quality. Ugh, talk about predictable and contrived. Hell, at one point, Madison even pulls "The Hitcher" on us by shooting up a car of armed cops even though she's handcuffed (okay, the way it's presented isn't entirely unbelievable, but shouldn't criminals get cuffed with their hands behind their backs).
It's also at this point Christensen's performance goes from creepy to plain silly, shouting lines like "I know you love me!" and "Tell me you love me!" Unsurprisingly, the climax is set in a swimming pool, so you know attempted drowning is going to play a part in this. Then the film ends on a dissatisfying note, not informing us on the fates of the characters (particularly Ben's mother). But as it is, Swimfan is still worthy of a rental, and it's worth checking out just to see that teen-oriented thrillers can be well-acted. |
My Public Profile 
