“Swimming Pool” (Focus Features)
“Swimming Pool” is one of those European movies which takes its own sweet time telling its story and never lets the plot or the audience hurry it along. Charlotte Rampling and newcomer Ludivine Sagnier star and make this dubious story more enjoyable than it should be. Erotic and suspenseful this “Swimming Pool” has a few shallow parts but also a deep end.
Sarah Morton (Rampling) is a British author of mysteries. Her career is successful but she has become bored with it and her life. She wants to try something new. Her publisher, John Bosload (Charles Dance) tells her she needs a change of scenery and offers her the use of his house in France. Sarah accepts.
Once in France, Sarah learns to relax and enjoy the house and the surrounding area. She even begins to work on a new novel. That is when Julie (Sagnier), Bosload’s daughter arrives. She disrupts Sarah’s schedule and annoys her to boot.
Julie is everything Sarah is not. Sarah is repressed, Julie is open. Sarah is conservative, Julie is anything but. Sarah plans ahead, Julie lives for the moment. Eventually these opposites attract and the two women form a friendship which lasts even after a tragedy occurs.
“Swimming Pool” is a movie that will hold your attention even with its slow, languid pace. You get hooked into the story by its attention to details and by the strong performances of its two leads.
Rampling is as intriguing as ever. Never your typical actress, she is always up for a challenge and in this role she finds one. There are many complexities in Sarah and Rampling gives view to each and every one.
Sagnier is also amazing. She gives Julie depth, which is a difficult thing to do when she appears to be all surface. Still she reflects the troubling waters within her soul and lets them bubble up in a surprising manner.
The film is rated R for violence, profanity and nudity.
After viewing “Swimming Pool” you might find it murky and confusing, but on reflection you might change to think it contrived and manipulative. At best you will find it murky and hard to fathom, and at worst it will remind you of “Bobby in the shower” on the TV series “Dallas.”
Still “Swimming Pool” gets points for the way the story is presented. You won’t find many movies that will make you ponder what you have seen like this one does.
I scored “Swimming Pool” a cool 6 out of 10.
