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60
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46
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78
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69
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47
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86
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30
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45
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96
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88
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71
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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96
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86
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28
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89
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64
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81
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xx
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63
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73
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xx
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74
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94
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29
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16
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75
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83
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61
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42
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70
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46
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19
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41
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66
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34
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80
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83
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xx
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59
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67
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34
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62
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xx
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48
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73
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xx
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54
Paper Heart
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68
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68
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44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
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65
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76
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69
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79
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40
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77
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xx
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89
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50
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55
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61
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83
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66
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67
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69
We Live in Public
64
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64
Where is Where?
xx
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74
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69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
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xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Swimming Pool

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 15 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Mystery
Written by:
Emmanuèle Bernheim
François Ozon
Directed by: François Ozon
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 2, 2003
DVD: January 13, 2004
Running Time: 102 minutes, Color
Origin: France / UK
Summary
RATING: R for strong sexual content, nudity, language, some violence and drug use
Starring Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, Marc Fayolle, Jean-Marie Lamour, Mireille Mossé, Michel Fau, and Jean-Claude Lecas
Europe's most daring and inventive writer/director, François Ozon, reunites with his two favorite leading ladies, Charlotte Rampling (of "Under the Sand") and Ludivine Sagnier (of "8 Women") in this deliciously sophisticated and sexy mystery. (Focus Features)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 5x2 8 Women Angel Criminal Lovers Time to Leave Under the Sand Water Drops on Burning Rocks
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site Official Director Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer
A delicious little thriller about an uptight, ill-humored English mystery writer who becomes enmeshed in murder, Swimming Pool is at once comical, contrary, resourceful and ambiguous.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Charlotte Rampling is the best reason, though far from the only one, to see Swimming Pool, a mesmerizing mystery, plus a wonderfully sensuous fantasy.
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The tension is never crushing, as it would be in an American job. Instead, it grows by increments, until you realize the movie, in its quiet way, has you snared entirely.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Occasionally falters in its symbolism and storytelling, but still unnerves because we're never quite sure of our bearings, or whose "reality" we're watching.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The narrative logic of Swimming Pool slips through our hands like cool water, shimmery and light-dappled, leaving behind the pleasures of summer heat and goose bumps.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
Ozon misses some chances with Sarah, but Rampling doesn't skip a beat. Freed from the burden of likability, the actress pushes the character from near-farce to near-tragedy, without once appealing to sentimentalism.
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
Working predominantly in English for the first time, the French director has crafted an absorbing tale about the merging of fiction with reality, propelled by contrasting performances from Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Simultaneously a thoroughly mannered, mischievously artificial confection and an acute piece of psychological realism. Whose psychology, and which reality, remains ambiguous even after the tart, delicious final twist.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Swimming Pool returns Ozon to the psychological complexities of "Under The Sand" and his early mini-feature "See The Sea," and he again proves himself a master of building shocking moments from a series of seemingly insignificant gestures and throwaway lines.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Ultimately, Swimming Pool belongs to Ozon, and while incorporating a carefully measured, quietly menacing style that summons up vintage Hitchcock and Chabrol, he has made it unmistakably -- and entertainingly -- his very own.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
As atypical a summer film as they come - no explosions, no car chases, no Arnold - but immensely more pleasing than films with all three of those summertime staples.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Whether the movie leaves you confused or angry, you will be stimulated to long discussion afterward. How often does that happen these days?
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
After it is over, you will want to go back and think things through again, and I can help you by suggesting there is one, and only one, interpretation that resolves all of the difficulties, but if I told you, you would have to kill me.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Very much a genre picture, relying on notions of suspense, surprise, and comeuppance. Indeed, at the center of this movie is a question of whether what we're seeing is really to be believed.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The film takes place half in English, half in French. The chilly, responsibility-laden world of British society contrasts with the sunny, relaxed quality of life in fare-thee-well France. If these seem like cliches, Ozon and Bernheim exploit them so adroitly that they never become stale.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
With a little sex, some mystery, a little sex, an appealing title and a little sex, France's Swimming Pool has what it takes to become an art house audience magnet, especially amid the heat of summer.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
In its own slightly disturbing way, this psychological thriller serves as an absorbing diversion without sapping brain cells -- almost the perfect summer movie for smart people.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
It's Sagnier, a young Bardot, who lifts the movie, and Rampling, 58, who gives it nuance, not to mention a nude scene that shows off a body Demi Moore would envy. These two make it seductive fun to be fooled.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
While not stunningly original, is fresh and compelling enough to hold the viewer's attention through its entire running length.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
Its worth seeing twice just for the privilege of watching Rampling and Sagnier match each other stroke for stroke.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Immersed here in both the fair, dreamy air and chilly, deeper waters, Rampling and Sagnier make Swimming Pool a fine sunlit noir, oozing sensuality and menace.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
But the ending, at once ambiguous and obvious, is a letdown -- a frustratingly literal-minded, or literary-minded, conceit.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
Less a thriller than a comedy, and a formulaic one at that, predicated on an amusing but bizarrely simplistic clash of personalities and cultures.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Tricky thriller relies on its smoothly unrippled surface, leisurely pacing and slightly awkward performances to create a false sense of security that sets up viewers for a shock when it takes an abrupt turn into Patricia Highsmith territory.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
All shiny surfaces and clever moves designed to blur the lines between fantasy and reality and uncover the kinkiness that lies within us all.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Unfortunately, after the well-honed psychological melodrama of its first half, this wanders off into the metaphysical territory of Ingmar Bergman's "Persona" (a much better film).
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Until the movie gets lost in its ultimately convoluted conceit, however, it's a superb modulation of menace, tension, mystery and eroticism.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Well-acted, nicely shot, slick and certainly sexy, Swimming Pool may be all foreplay and no climax, but what the heck -- there are worse ways to be teased.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
Along with co-writer Emmanuele Bernhein, Ozon...has crafted a contemplative blend of fantasy and reality that illuminates the mysteries of the creative process.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
May Ozon and Rampling do more at the level of this film's first hour. Or maybe they could amputate the last part of Swimming Pool and finish the film as it deserves.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Ozon devises tantalizing scenarios and immerses himself completely--then seems happy to tread water.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Even though it has some amusing moments, Swimming Pool crawls entirely too slowly toward -- well, toward nothing much.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Ozon has a smooth gift for scenes of unease, but ultimately Swimming Pool liquifies into a dreary puzzle movie.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The suspenseful set-up never pays off, but Rampling continues the impressive collaboration with Ozon that began with "Under the Sand."
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Darla H. gave it a 3:
Actresses did an excellent job, but the movie moved to slowly and was confusing at the end. "Identity" was a better movie than this as far as making you think.
Gabor A. gave it a 7:
Quite a refreshing dip from the garbage that came out during the same summer. Every film uses something to fill up the spaces and to keep audiences distracted, this one just happens to use softcore pornography.
Mark A. gave it a 1:
What the hell is this? This movie is just a long plodding story line with a little twist at the end. I think?
Ben W. gave it a 6:
It looked good (and so did the two leading ladies), but I didn't really get it, and throughout the first half, I was just waiting for SOMETHING to happen.
Victor M> gave it an 8:
Splendid acting, thoroughly enchanting. Ludivine Sagnier is so natural, she does not seem to be acting. She appears to show real hurt, indifference, vulnerability. The film is captivating because of her and Rampling. Unfortunately, the story runs out of steam and resorts to a tidy, though imaginative, ending.
Tony L. gave it a 7:
An interesting movie undone by an unnecessary twist ending. They should have played it straight!
Just SomeDood gave it an 8:
It should be highly regarded as one of the few films this year that has tried to be fresh, imaginative, and different...and not for the sake of box office, but rather for the sake of art and expression. Engaging throughout.
