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Amazon.co.uk Review
A distinctly mediocre high-school thriller, Swimfan is worryingly predictable not only in its general direction, but also in its details. The moment that high school swimmer Ben (Jesse Bradford) tells Madison, a wild-eyed upper-class blonde with whom he has had a one-night stand in the pool, that she misunderstands their relationship, you start looking at the things he values and guessing the order in which she will break them. There is the sweet old man he helps as a hospital volunteer; there is the best friend and rival; there is the sickeningly sweet girlfriend--and sure enough each of them in turn finds themselves in jeopardy. And you just know it was a mistake for him to tell Madison about his druggy past and show her how to jimmy her way into lockers.
This is essentially a remake of Fatal Attraction, but one lacking the edge of madness that Glenn Close brought to her woman spurned. It combines by-the-numbers plot cues with some staggering implausibilities: at one point Ben is seriously suspected of a crime when he has nuns as witnesses to his presence in another state. Ill-thought-out in most ways, Swimfan's principal merit is Erika Christensen's loopy performance as Madison.
On the DVD: Swimfan is presented in a widescreen visual aspect ratio of 1-85:1; but the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound sometimes has an imperfect balance between the crashing indie-rock score and the dialogue. The special features include deleted and extended scenes with or without commentary by director John Polson, an overly self-congratulatory commentary on the whole film by Polson and stars Bradford and Christensen, a mildly interesting featurette and the usual trailers and spots. --Roz Kaveney
Special Features
Feature length commentary by actors Jesse Bradford & Erika Christensen and director John Polson
Deleted & extended scenes with optional commentary
"The Girlfriend from Hell" featurette
Theatrical Trailers
TV & Radio Sports
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
CLASSY TEEN FARE,
This review is from: Swimfan [VHS] [2002] (VHS Tape)
Swimfan. All I'd read were bad reviews, but this film puts them all to rest. Bad reviews usually accompany remakes of old movies, especially when classics such as 'Fatal Attraction' are re-located to high school, as is the case here. But Swimfan, although being your average teen movie in terms of predicatability, is far classier than any adult reviewer would have you believe.So, Ben Cronin (Jesse Bradford - Clockstoppers) is the star of the school swimming team, an all-round good guy, but with a shady past involving drugs and a spell at a correctional school. He is dating sweet as apple pie Amy (Erika Christensen). You know, she is the kind of girl that always hands homework in on time, she is never late and heaven forbid if she swore. But she knows how to have a good time. Their relationship is perfect, and with the regional swimming finals coming up, things can only get better if Ben wins his scholarship to California. But, as in all teen movies, someone comes along to spoil it. Madison Bell (Shiri Appleby - TV's Roswell) is the new girl at school, and she becomes besotted with Ben, eventually seducing him in the swimming pool. She turns from friend to stalker to murderess. As time goes on, events start to get strange, and Ben gets the blame each time. Madison is loose and out to get her man. But at a price. Swimfan is essentially a movie made for teens, it explores the nature of teen relationships in a very real way, and you find yourself empathising with the characters: the helpless Ben, the innocent Amy and the jilted Madison. Not the best teen movie out there, but certainly worth a try and a few repeat watchings.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Swimfan fails to make a splash,
By
This review is from: Swimfan [DVD] [2002] (DVD)
There's nothing terribly wrong this film. But there's nothing that spectacular about it either. It's not awful and the lead actor, Jesse Bradford, is solid - but nothing of note really happens in this film. It's the usual story of an obsessed admirer who turns the object of their affection's life into a living hell.
This film is bordering on 2 stars for me, but I can't really say I don't like it, so it's going to get 3 stars. No pun intended, I can't really call myself a huge 'fan' of this film - but there's worse out there. One to watch on TV... but only if nothing else is on. If this review was helpful to you at all, please give it the thumbs up. Thanks :-)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Let them drown, those who don't know how to swim,
By
This review is from: Swimfan [DVD] [2002] (DVD)
A rather poor story. Two nice young people love each other. The boy is in the swimming team and the girl is happily going along in her life of work and school. Then a vulture arrives. She is blonde, she is cannibalistic, she is ready to kill to possess what she wants and she does not take no as an answer to her orders. Then the boy says yes under pressure and she will not accept his no later on and will kill everything she can lay her hands on : friends, girl friend, mother, and the list could go on forever. The boy, with the help of a couple of people, bait that vulture with the coat of one she had tried to kill, and she is tricked into revealing her real identity, and even so she is not finished and she takes advantage of an amateurish cop to commit a couple more crime. What do we get out of this melodramatic horror? A complete feeling of emptiness that gives you a taste of ashes in your mouth, the ashes of something that is dead somewhere. Crime is never mechanical. To kill someone requires some imagination. In this case it is nothing but a bad habit that no one can cut out of her.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
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