Swimfan

I was unfortunately not impressed at all with this so called 'blockbuster' movie, as i thought it to be a remake of Adrian Lynne's 80's cult classic-"Fatal Attraction". As i watched it, everything seemed so familiar, the 'bad girl' thrillers have been all seen before, and the only way this differs from all of the others is that this is set in high school. If they trying to make this anither one of those high school classics, it has failed disastrously. For people who thought this movie was great, they should first check out "Fatal attraction"- the concept is the same. Madison- Erika Christensan plays Glen Close's character, Ben - Jesse Bradford plays Micheal Douglas' character, and Amy - shiri Appelby plays Anne Archer's character. I was not impressed with this movie, and wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has seen "Fatal Attraction".

Having recently seen Jesse Bradford as Rene Gagnon in Clint Eastwood's Flags Of Our Fathers and been impressed I decided to check out Swimfan. It's a typical teen flick, a version in their age bracket of Fatal Attraction. Jesse's the object of the obsession of Erika Christiansen, a most disturbed young woman who had a tragedy that most of the cast doesn't know about, but that truly unhinges her. After Erika seduces Jesse in a steamy seduction scene at the high school pool, she enters his life in all sorts of unwanted ways. Jesse has a criminal past, but got himself into swimming and is set for an athletic scholarship in that sport. When one of Jesse's swimming teammates winds up dead in the selfsame swimming pool, he's looking mighty good for it to the police. Swimfan is not a badly done teen flick and in Bradford one has a young Tyrone Power so Erika's obsession is understandable. Hey, I think he looks a bit like Power, maybe Rob Lowe.

I was unfortunate enough to watch this movie one day on cable TV, and have since been forcefully advocating my hatred of it to anyone that will listen. John Polsen whom i had so much respect for, considering he directed the Trop Fest film festival into becoming the hulking success it is today, and also directing Siam Sunset which i greatly enjoyed, has permanently stained his career in my perspective, with this his first leap into Hollywood. The main character, Ben a devoted swimmer, is unwaveringly unlikable. His sleazy demeanor make it impossible to find him remotely empathetic, and so when he does happen to have a high school affair with the mentally unbalanced new girl, and she continues to seek vengeance upon him once he spurns her, i found myself wishing her the very best. Not that i found it possible to relate to her on any level either, because in the script she is presented as such a shallow stick figure of a character. each twist this film takes seems hackneyed, each line of dialog feels forced. I'm sorry to say this, i really am, but it's simply rubbish in my opinion

Ben Cronin (Jesse Bradford) has it all--he's a high schooler with a great mother, a wonderful girlfriend and a great career ahead of him as a swimmer. However he meets beautiful Madison Bell (Erika Christensen) and (stupidly) has sex with her. It turns out she's a psycho and when he rejects her she goes out to turn his life into a living hell...and she's not above murdering someone. Totally predictable but surprisingly not bad at all. The characters talk and act like teens (although they all look their age--early 20s), the story moves fairly quickly and I was never bored. There are some glaring lapses in logic but, while I was watching the movie, they didn't bother me. For instance, it's impossible for Bell to do all the things she does. Also the sex and violence is very toned down for the PG-13 rating. Good performances really make the film work. Bradford is very good as Cronin. Handsome, muscular and believable. Shiri Appleby does wonders with her sadly underwritten role as his girlfriend. Christensen is excellent as Bell. She's both beautiful and very scary. No masterpiece bit a good, solid teen thriller. I paid $9.50 and thought it was money well spent! Worth catching.

Ben Cronin (Bradford) is one of those high schoolers that almost had it all: plenty of good friends, a sweet girlfriend (Appleby), and the swimming skills of a champion. His life and success track are scrambled, however, with the introduction to Madison Bell (Christensen), a vixen who becomes smitten with him. Madison seduces Ben in the pool one night, and while he feels guilty after a session of horizontal watersports, Masison goes Glen Close in Fatal Attraction crazy when he turns her down, and the movie starts to turn. From the previews, Swimfan looked like a bad movie, an "Attraction" set in high school suburbia with Michael Douglas' role as a swim fanatic instead of a businessman. While the last third of the picture veers off heavily into the land of the un-yielding female revenge cliche, the first two-thirds of the film are actually a pretty provocative, tight character study with issues of infidelity and confidence. Christensen, who made a startling breakout role as a judge's intoxicated daughter in 2000's Traffic, plays it rather straight and sensual, which gives the film a boost, until her over-the-top climax, and shows that, in a B-movie sort of showcase, she can hold her own. B-

We've seen this idea before, in other films like "Fatal Attraction" (1987) and "The Crush" (1993). A woman obsesses about a man, and won't let go. Given the high school age of the main characters in "Swimfan", and given background music that is mostly sophomoric, the film is clearly targeted at people under the age of twenty-five. Ben Cronin (Jesse Bradford) is annoyingly smug. He's your prototype high school pop jock. He drives around in a macho-looking pickup truck. Madison Bell (lovely Erika Christensen) gets a crush on Ben and, even knowing he already has a girlfriend, stalks him relentlessly; she's his femme fatale. Conveniently unstable and manipulative, Madison makes trouble for Ben with one plot contrivance after another. The script has a setup that is too long. And the second half of the script has action that is wildly improbable. Madison just seems to appear from out of nowhere in the most unlikely places, and at just the right time. Her efforts are too easy, especially as they relate to hospital security and police procedures. It's as if she has superhuman powers, not an effect you want to impart as a storyteller, unless your story fits in the sci-fi or fantasy genre, which this film does not. If the script is weak, the acting is generally pretty good, with reasonably effective performances from Jesse Bradford, Erika Christensen, and James DeBello as Dante. The film's color cinematography is fine. And I also liked the editing, with jump cuts that neatly corresponded with Madison's state of mind. "Swimfan" is not a bad movie. But its premise is unoriginal, and the plot structure is faulty. A script rewrite or two might have rendered a better cinematic outcome. However, other elements of the film are fine. And for the right audience, this film does have some entertainment value, at least for a one-time viewing.

It amazes me that 15 years after FATAL ATTRACTION producers still believe there's some mileage left in plots featuring stalkers . Occasionally you might come across one movie in this sub genre that's not unimpressive ( I thought FEAR was fairly good ) but unless you're bringing something new to the table then don't bother The problem with SWIMFAN is that it has a running time of 85 minutes and unless you have foreknowledge of the plot you don't know it's a stalker movie until something like 40 minutes . That's right this film doesn't reveal its plot until half way through the running time . Of course there are those who might defend it in saying that because bodies don't turn up left right and centre within the first 15 minutes of the narrative this allows the story to have credibility . Maybe so but we the audience have to endure meaningless scenes where it's all ready established that Ben Cronin is an aspiring swimmer with a great future ahead of him which holds up an overly familiar suspense less story still further An entirely missable movie

One of, if not the worst film I have ever seen in my life! The acting (side for the main guy who is passable!) is utterly atrocious and the direction flat and insipid! Whoever thought the world needed a teenage Fatal Attraction should be shot fifteen times in the head! Avoid this like the plague; though it is one of those movies perhaps that is so bad its good! Yeuch The whole plot is ridiculous, the characters are not explained enough and the supposed "scares" aren't even close to Scooby Doo levels of terror! The music belongs in some half-assed college movie about lost/teenage love and the direction really is pathetic! Once again-yeuch!

This is one of those films that proves once again that there are limits to how much decent production values can redeem a bad script. Lenny Bruce had a great line that covers the situation: "You can't get snot off a suede jacket." Directed by the guy who helmed "Hide and Seek," which I haven't seen yet, but eventually will once I find it for free at the library like I did this one (thank goodness!), "Swimfan" (an inept title if ever I've seen one) has some nice camera-work and decent acting going for it, but not much else. It's one of those films that has you progressing from "Huh?" to "What the...?" to "Now hold on a second!" to "Oh, for God's sake!" to "Alright, now that's just ridiculous!" over the course of its beguiling but vacuous running time. The leads are attractive enough and do their best with the slim material, but simply cannot overcome the forced storyline. I know I finally gave up on it completely when bad girl Madison shot her way out of the back seat of a police cruiser. Handcuffs in front? A conveniently left-handed cop in the back seat who leaves his weapon conveniently unsecured? Please. Dan Hedaya has an uncharacteristic turn as a relatively sane swimming coach, but was obviously just taking a paycheck. Eminently skippable unless you're an Erica Christensen groupie (I found Shiri Appleby much more attractive), "Swimfan" sinks rapidly in the deep waters of its own stupidity and lack of believability.

John Polson is quite an inept director (he also directed last year's flop Robert De Niro film, "Hide and Seek") and this 2002 venture was no change of pace for him. Jesse Bradford stars (and I use the word "stars" rather than "plays," since his "performance" is no more than using a single facial expression for 80 minutes) as a high school jock who is seduced by Erika Christensen and then stalked by her. It's "Fatal Attraction" with teens and it's ridiculous. The script has problems from the beginning and most of the movie is just a way of cashing in on the '80s' obsession with stalker-flicks - fortunately this helped prove definitively that their crossover into the new millennium was, shall we say, not very successful.