Swimming Pool

Bomb Rating: 

I'm all for coming up with some excuse to parade a hot-looking naked chick across the screen for two hours. However, it helps if that excuse actually makes some sense or is, at the very least, moderately interesting.

I'm all for coming up with some excuse to parade a hot-looking naked chick across the screen for two hours. However, it helps if that excuse actually makes some sense or is, at the very least, moderately interesting.

Frankly, I became less and less interested in the mystery of why Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) is so messed up as the film progressed. Likewise, seeing an obviously mentally ill naked chick hanging out by a swimming pool and having sex with a wide variety of unattractive men tends to lose it's charm fast.

Julie is the daughter of John Bosload (Charles Dance) who's the editor of Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling), a successful mystery writer. When Sarah shows up at John's office claiming to be tired and lacking inspiration, he sends her off to his little French cottage for some R&R. No sooner is she enjoying the peace and quiet than Julie shows up to ruin it with her sexy body, her loud intercourse and her mysterious past.

Red herrings are common in many films, particularly those of Alfred Hitchcock, so director Francois Ozon's use of one doesn't necessarily make this a bad film. What does make it a bad film is that Ozon seems to think that a writer's inspiration is an interesting subject, or that pulling the rug out from under his audience, essentially negating their experience of the film, is an appropriate way to wrap it up.

"Swimming Pool" is one of those movies that ends and makes the viewer feel like it's stolen precious time out of her life.

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