Sign up to add this to your collection
|
Sign up to add this to your favorites
|
|
45%
Overall Rating
|
|
Ranked #3,535
...out of 20,698 movies
|
Sign up to check in!
|
Ben Cronin has it all: the admiration of his many friends, a terrific girlfriend, and an appointment with swim scouts from Stanford. It's not easy; Ben must train for countless hours in the pool for a critical swim meet, work at the local hospital and find quality time with his high school sweetheart, Amy. His wonderful life is disrupted by the arrival of Madison Bell. The new girl in town quickly sets her sights on the impressionable Ben. While their first few meetings are innocent enough, the seductive Madison wants more.
--IMDb
|
|
Let me begin with saying that I had low expectations for this film, as I usually do for all thrillers aimed at a pre-pubescent audience. Every now and again a winner like "O" or "Election" will emerge, but most of the time the outcome is always the same--zero plot, terrible acting, and unbelievably uninspired storytelling. That is what I was expecting from "Swimfan"--I mean, c'mon, the trailer for this flick was God awful to watch and twice as nauseating as the trailer for "Kazaam!".
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by this film, a teen thriller that combines pretty decent suspense and timing with a couple of really entertaining performances from leads Bradford and Christensen. Sure, the plot is paper thin, but it really reminded me of the movie "The Crush", starring Cary Elwes and Alicia Silverstone, a film which I believe to be an exceptional motion picture, though it received very little critical attention (maybe it's just one of my guilty pleasures and I can't admit it...oh, wait, I just did).
Newcomer Erika Christensen does a fabulous job as obsessed stalker Madison Bell (what a perfect movie name), not quite matching up to psychos like Glenn Close or Sharon Stone, but still holding her own. And, Jesse Bradford (yes, the brat from "Clockstoppers") even does a decent job as stalkee Ben Cronin, though he still looks too young for the character he is playing--it's pretty bad when you're playing a high school student and still can't look the part.
The most glowing praise I have of this film is that director John Polson borrows heavily from Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest director the world has ever known. There are several scenes which are very similar to scenes you would expect from a Hitchcockian tale. The main problems I had with the film were that, as I stated before, the plot was paper thin, and that the film utterly boils down into one of those predictable scenarios. But, with a film like this, you have to just let your senses go and take it for what it is--an entertaining farce about a girl stalking a guy. It's as simple as that, and it is certainly worth checking out if you are inside of the targeted age group (and maybe some of you out there, like me, who just want to feel young at heart). Nothing warms my heart like the thought of a girl playing hammer and nails on my chest with an ice pick. Ahhh, memories. 8/10.
|
|
#1:
phreak264
- added June 24, 2005 at 7:48am
This is one of those movies I watch all the time
when I am alone and bored. It's a movie I can't
get tired of.
|
|
#2:
Optimus Prime
- added November 7, 2009 at 6:00pm
I think about everyone has seen this movie for
some reason. It's not that great... 4/10.
|
|
Rate Movie? 
