Review Copyright Cassandra Henry, 2003

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"A swimming pool is more like a cesspool of bacteria." -- Sarah Morton CASS' CLIP (WARNING: **spoilers below**) Fifty-something, Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling), should be on top of the world because she has a successful career as one of Britain's well-known crime novelists. One of the main characters in Sarah's hugely popular novels is Inspector Durwell. But, the fact that her loyal fan base includes aging readers like the mother of her publisher, John Bosload (Charles Dance), has Sarah feeling a bit uninspired. Sarah also has a bad case of writer's block because she has grown bored with writing this series of detective novels. To remedy Sarah's humdrum mood, John offers his villa in the south of France as a vacation spot to relax, which may in turn kick-start her creative juices. When Sarah arrives at John's villa, it's more beautiful and idyllic than she imagined. She quickly acclimates to her surroundings by shopping and dining at one of the local restaurants. One night Sarah takes a walk around the villa and she stumbles upon the swimming pool, which is covered with a tarp and is filled with dead leaves. [Somewhat of a metaphor of Sarah's life.] The solitude and ambiance appears to be the perfect place for Sarah because she begins work on her next novel. But, before Sarah can spell "Whodunit," all that was once tranquil is now gone. In the middle of the night, a loud and obnoxious intruder, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), arrives. "So you're daddy's newest conquest," Julie disdainly infers. Of course, there first meeting is a little tense, since unbeknownst to Sarah, John has a teenage daughter, and neither expected the other one to be there. "You bastard. You could have told me your daughter was coming. How do you expect me to work now," Sarah leaves a message on John's voice mail. With a new roommate, Sarah's peaceful change of scenery quickly transforms into a villa from hell. Just to get on Sarah's prudish nerves, Julie skinny-dips, walks around topless, plays loud music at night and engages in loud sex with strangers. Certainly, there are underlying reasons and perhaps good cause, why Julie is a devious little bitch. Will Sarah give Julie an old fashion whupping? Will Julie's free-spirited lifestyle turn out to be more of a nuisance or will Sarah be inspired by Julie to write about a new character and genre? DA 411 Emmanuele Bernheim and Francois Ozon try to incorporate generational differences between two female characters, while at the same time attempting to build an edgy thriller in Swimming Pool. To some degree, that mood works because Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier are perfectly cast for their roles. I absolutely loved Rampling's portrayal of an uptight, yet quirky, 50-something, crime novelist. She is a delight to watch. Ludivine Sagnier plays well off of Rampling's character, and she's believable as a free-spirited, yet troubled and confused teenager. The problem with Swimming Pool is how the loose ends are tied up. Damn! CASS' CONCLUSION Just when the plot almost seems interesting enough to watch, the mystery belly flops in the deep end of the Swimming Pool. SWIMMING POOL:   back to top Copyright Cassandra Henry, 2003 EMAIL: cass@3blackchicks.com