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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 2.35:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( 51)
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English
  Extras
  • Deleted scenes
  • 1 Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary
  • Featurette
  • Animated menus
  • 2 TV spot

Swimfan

Warner Bros./Warner Home Video . R4 . COLOR . 77 mins . PG-13 . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Normally I’m not a big fan of Hollywood’s penchant for remakes, but even cynical old me can see the possibilities in repackaging the classic psycho-sexual thriller Fatal Attraction for the current teen market. With the majority of its target audience still undifferentiated gametes when Michael Douglas and Glenn Close locked horns back in 1987, the prospect of a little sexual titillation adding spice to the current teen thriller formula must have seemed a pretty sure thing. Well, so you would think. But Swimfan - the product of Michael Douglas’ company Further Films no less - is flat, derivative, and disappointingly predictable; failing to generate even a modicum of suspense, let alone emulate its much lauded predecessor.

Swimfan is the story of popular high school jock Ben (Jesse Bradford); the rising star of the school swim team who’s oh-so-close to snatching a prestigious sports scholarship at Stanford University. A one-time juvenile delinquent, Ben owes his current success to the stabilising influence in his life; his girlfriend and adorable girl-next-door Amy (Shiri Appleby). But trouble is on the way for Ben in the form of perky new girl in town - femme fatale Madison Bell (Erika Christensen). Immediately taking a shine to young Ben, Madison turns on her charm; finally cornering him and sharing a few late-night erm strokes with the young swimmer in the school pool. And while Ben moves quickly to put his indiscretion behind him, despite agreeing that their tryst should remain a one-night-swim, the young stud finds himself the subject of Madison’s ongoing attentions. More importantly, he quickly comes to realise that this blonde Southern belle is a totally obsessive psycho who takes to the role of scorned lover very, very badly…

Directed by Mr Tropfest himself, Australia’s own John Polson, Swimfan utterly fails to thrill for all of its mercifully short 77 minutes. This is a shame because, on the surface, many of its ingredients are actually fairly reasonable. Certainly in terms of visuals, Polson has created a suitably cold and sinister film; brooding and slightly off-kilter as the genre expects. Likewise, the teen stars, especially a subtly, yet impressively deranged Christensen, are solid - at the very least in terms of their emotional believability and truth. But where Swimfan utterly fails all this good work is in its derivative, cookie-cutter script.

Now I’m no screenwriter, but even I'm aware that penning a good thriller is no easy task. It requires a deft touch that, amongst other things, supplies the required amount of foreshadowing without giving the game away. Likewise cliché and the use of genre stereotypes must be avoided at all costs. Proving once again that the quality of a script is often inversely proportional to the number of writers, the three writers responsible for Swimfan seem to have ignored even these simple tenets. Right from the outset the plot is spelled out in none too subtle terms, with each character’s path to destruction obvious to all within the first ten minutes.

As if poor writing wasn't enough, Swimfan labours under concessions made to its target demographic. To obtain a PG-13 rating - an absolutely ridiculous prospect for a psycho-sexual anything, let alone a thriller – all the film’s violence, and I mean all the violence, occurs off camera. I mean call me stupid, but if you’re going to scare 13-year olds, try tales of lost pocket money and the death of the Easter Bunny rather than psycho sexual thrillers. At the very least aim at an M for pity’s sake! With the violence stripped away we see only the consequences of Madison’s psychotic creativity, not the girl in the act herself. Considerably reducing the impact of these events, the film’s lead character and the film as a whole, are much poorer for it. Likewise the film has been stripped of any nudity, and the seduction scene is fairly weak, reducing the film's main base of believability - that Ben could be enticed to commit adultery.

Time left for one last parting shot? Oh, why the hell not. A major problem I have with all these teen films is that they focus on the most boring individuals on earth. I mean the school jock and his popular friends? I mean who the hell gives a f*ck what happens to them? I mean, the poor pretty-boy - all those beautiful girls lusting after him, and one getting the hump when he takes the sex and doesn’t want the complications. Oh my bleeding heart! Do I care if he or his clueless friends are killed in the most gruesome manner possible? Hardly. And why the hell isn’t Ben interested in the psycho new-girl anyway? OK, she's a bit funny-looking, but she’s way more interesting than his insipid slip of a girlfriend. It’s like that film Scream. All those popular, piss-boring kids being stalked by the school geeks. The higher the body count the more I cheered. Or maybe it’s just me…

  Video
Contract

Presented at its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, Icon’s anamorphic transfer of Swimfan is perfect, but for a number of minor compression artefacts. Sharp and detailed throughout without adding undue aliasing artefacts, the Polson’s sinister scenes - often bathed in unsettling blue hues - are nicely reproduced. Likewise skin tones are natural, while black level and shadow detail are both great - both keen necessities given the genre imperatives of night scenes and darkened locations. The source material does display a little film grain during the darkest night scenes, but you’ll be looking fairly hard to see it.

As noted, it’s in terms of the compression process that the transfer has introduced its only noteworthy problems. Manifesting as both a little posterisation and macro-blocking on the odd dark background wall, and one or two instances of chroma noise on the odd foreground element (in one instance faces), whilst not distracting, these slight blemishes are frequent enough to reduce Swimfan’s otherwise impeccable video rating.

  Audio
Contract

In terms of its single English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, Swimfan’s audio presentation is quite a mixed bag. All the standard, rather cliché thriller elements are here, with variations on the slasher riiiiiii–riiiiiiii-riiiiiiii effects prominent in many scenes and all supported by an eerie (thankfully less generic) cello-based score (Madison plays the cello you see). Mixed nicely between the front and rear channels, the cello pieces are quite effective in raising the hairs on the back of your neck, or would have been given a far less predictable script. The real problem, however, is that every time the soundtrack looks like establishing a bit of real tension, it reverts quite suddenly to one crashing non-name rock track or another. And despite providing more of the film’s quota of nicely-balanced rear channel activity, these increasingly inappropriate tracks destroy what tension the film manages to build, releasing the audience from its grip and conveying nothing about the mindset or emotions of the characters. Also annoying, at least in the film’s initial few scenes, these crashing tracks manage to drown out some of the dialogue; all too obviously deemed of only secondary importance. In terms of ambient sound, as is typical of thrillers, Swimfan is quite subdued, letting the score and the general creepiness tell the story (or not as the case may be). The subwoofer is used judiciously to enhance the mood, adding low-end to the music, and adding the odd thump or crash when necessary.

  Extras
Contract

Given Swimfan’s relatively low budget (reportedly only US$5 million), we shouldn’t expect too many extras, and Icon seem to have supplied only what they could scrape together. In all only the commentary is of any real interest, and that is only fleeting.

  • Commentary – Director John Polson and stars Erica Christensen and Jesse Bradford: Polson and his two stars chat happily about their little film, each with gushing compliments for the other, and the younger members displaying a little of the naiveté for the film making process. Still, it's reasonably enlightening and certainly not to boring a listen.

  • Deleted Scenes: Presents what is basically extended versions of nine existing scenes; all up around 12-odd minutes of obvious foreshadowing and slow moments removed for pacing. These can be viewed in their original form or with a commentary from John Polson.

  • Featurette – Girlfriend From Hell: (9:57) Plot spoilers ahoy! Interview snippets with the three teen leads, John Polson, and various other producers and such discuss the primarily character of Madison Bell, and to some extent the other lead characters and the plot itself. Totally deconstructing the film, it’s filled with lame, totally obvious observations from the young actors.

  • Theatrical Trailer: (2:07) Accompanied by heavy metal and that annoying trailer voiceover guy.

  • TV Spots: There’s two of them, and they last only a few seconds. But you aren’t even interested, are you?

  • Radio Spot: An audio only radio advertisement. You definitely don’t need to bother with this one...

  Overall  
Contract

Overall, Swimfan is a disappointment; labouring and eventually drowning in the shallow end of the PG-13 pool. While Polson’s direction is strong, extracting engaging performances from his three teen leads and generating some nicely moody images, the whole project has been sold short by the Hollywood marketing machine. While the heavily sanitised script strips the thriller plot of much of its requisite punch, what remains has been short-changed by the inappropriate teen rock soundtrack. In all possibility, the film’s target demographic may well enjoy Swimfan as an excuse to curl up with their high-school sweetheart. But with an infinite number of more entertaining psycho-sexual thrillers already on video shelves, there’s unfortunately little to recommend it.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=2431
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      And I quote...
    "Despite strong direction and reasonable performances, there's the distinct smell of piss in Polson’s pool..."
    - Gavin Turner
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Toshiba SD-2108
    • TV:
          Panasonic TC-68P90A TAU (80cm)
    • Receiver:
          Yamaha RX-V795
    • Amplifier:
          Yamaha RX-V795
    • Speakers:
          B&W 602
    • Centre Speaker:
          B&W CC6 S2
    • Surrounds:
          JM Lab Cobalt SR20
    • Subwoofer:
          B&W ASW-500
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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