Featured Movies
Partners
Swimfan
A high-school athlete finds himself being stalked after a one-night stand takes a dangerous Fatal Attraction twist in this derivative teen shocker
'Bunny boiling for the Dawson's Creek generation' must have been the high-concept pitch that got John Polson's wannabe teen thriller into production. It's exactly what he delivers: a generation-shifted Fatal Attraction clone with little wit or originality to call its own. Talented high-school swimmer Ben Cronin (Bradford) take a trip into relationship hell after his consequence-free one-night stand with new girl in town Madison Bell (Christensen) refuses to go away. Soon the ever-so-slightly psychotic Madison is stalking him, threatening his attempts at a scholarship and destroying his relationship with childhood sweetheart Amy (Appleby). But surely even she'd draw the line at murder, wouldn't she? Swimfan (aka Swimf@n) has flashes of fun. Some of the mechanical 'Oooooh! She's behind you!' shocks do have you wriggling uncomfortably in your seat, and The Deep End cinematographer Giles Nuttgens gives the early scenes a bright and twinkly smalltown beauty (before reverting to psycho-shorthand blues, browns and shadows for the later stuff). But it's all just so trite and predictable. From the moment that Traffic actress Christensen flashes her unblinking icy blues at the wooden Bradford, they might as well have the words 'Nutjob' and 'Moron' tattooed across their respective foreheads for all the character they bring to proceedings. Like everybody else mired in this clich??, they don't so much act as simply follow the demands of a zero-twist plot that a seven-year-old child could have successfully guessed after the opening 10 minutes. Verdict Fatal Attraction was new, refreshing and - above all - exciting back in 1987. Swimfan is none of those things in 2002. |
