Swimming Pool

2/4

Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance

The version being reviewed is unrated.  For the record, the theatrical cut is rated R for Strong Sexual Content, Nudity, Language, Some Violence and Drug Use

Dive into this summer's sexiest mystery
So the tagline for Francois Ozon's "Swimming Pool" promises.  Except that it's not very sexy or mysterious.  In fact, for the most part it's simply boring.

Murder mystery author Sarah Morton (Rampling) is bored writing her series of popular murder mysteries.  Her publisher (Dance) senses this and offers to let her stay in his house in France where she can recharge her batteries and write something new.  That is until his daughter Julie (Sagnier) drops by unexpectedly, and things start to get a little testy...

Normally I'd avoid divulging more in order to avoid spoilers, but the truth is that there really isn't much to spoil.  The brittle Sarah and the oversexed Julie are more or less the same people throughout the entire movie.  Neither woman is especially interesting, although the valiant efforts of Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier keep things from becoming even more of a trial.

Few actresses are as icy as Charlotte Rampling.  With her cold eyes, she can intimidate anyone.  But Rampling is a gifted actress, able to use all of her talents.  To be quite frank, she's above this meager material.  I'm actually surprised that an actress of her talents would accept a role in such a flat screenplay.  Rampling does what she can to keep things afloat (no pun intended), but she can only do so much.

Her co-star Ludvine Sagnier is in a similar boat.  She gives it her all, but while she's never less than convincing as the sultry and temperamental Julie, the dynamic that she and Rampling try to create between their characters just isn't there.  They're stuck in a movie without a story.

With "Swimming Pool," co-writer/director Francois Ozon appears to be trying to create an erotic thriller out of vapor.  There's nothing here.  The screenplay has two wonderful actresses babble on and on without saying or doing anything of interest.  Until the final 20 minutes, nothing happens.  That's when Ozon hits us with some plot twists that would have been shocking had they been handled well.  But there's no motivation or context for what happens, so I just felt jerked around.

I can imagine Ozon or one of the movie's defenders telling me to "look behind the lines" or something like that.  Believe me, I tried.  Ultimately there's about as much going on underneath as there is on the surface.  Which is to say: not much.

Comments

  1. JosephMarch 16, 2019 at 11:45 PM

    A swimming pool at the backyard of your home can actually reflect your life style in front of the world. But at the same time maintaining it can be a huge problem, as it is quite a time consuming as well as a stressful job. Swimming pool cleaning

    ReplyDelete

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