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Swimming Pool
Focus Features


6.6

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 15 votes
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FILM:

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Mystery
WRITTEN BY:	Emmanuèle Bernheim François Ozon
DIRECTED BY:	François Ozon
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 13, 2004 Video: January 13, 2004 Theatrical: July 2, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / UK

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Clever and unhurried mystery.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

While not stunningly original, is fresh and compelling enough to hold the viewer's attention through its entire running length.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

It’s worth seeing twice just for the privilege of watching Rampling and Sagnier match each other stroke for stroke.

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

But the ending, at once ambiguous and obvious, is a letdown -- a frustratingly literal-minded, or literary-minded, conceit.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Seductive, ultimately frustrating.

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.

Slate David Edelstein

Ozon devises tantalizing scenarios and immerses himself completely--then seems happy to tread water.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Even though it has some amusing moments, Swimming Pool crawls entirely too slowly toward -- well, toward nothing much.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Ozon has a smooth gift for scenes of unease, but ultimately Swimming Pool liquifies into a dreary puzzle movie.

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."

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A hollow excuse for an erotic mystery.

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.

Swimming Pool Focus Features

Swimming Pool
Focus Features