Swimfan film review

certificate_12A

SWIMFAN

Fifteen years after Glenn Close boiled Michael Douglas's bunny, Swimfan puts a trashy teen spin on Fatal Attraction.

But while Fatal Attraction pricked the collective conscience of married men across the world, Swimfan will probably have its teen audience laughing in derision, at the ease with which the golden boy hero falls from grace, and at the death and misery caused by one meaningless frolic in the swimming pool.

Ben Cronin (Jesse Bradford) is a boy with a bright future. The star swimmer on his high school team, he has serious scholarship ambitions, and a beautiful and loving girlfriend Amy (Shiri Appleby), who worships the water he swims in. Coach Simkins (Dan Hedaya) is convinced Ben will be the swimmer to bring him championship glory, so long as he doesn%u2019t let his hormones get in the way of training.

Unfortunately, Ben's teenage sex drive gets the better of him when he responds to the shameless flirting of new girl Madison (Erika Christensen), and succumbs to her sexual advances for a night of bump and grind in the deep end of the pool.

The next morning, Ben is understandably racked with guilt, and just wants to forget about the one-night stand. Madison refuses to end their relationship quite so easily. She begins stalking Ben, worming her way into his daily routine and befriending the people close to him in the hope she can woo him away from Amy.

When Ben finally snaps and tells Madison to get lost, she retaliates with tragic consequences.

As friends and even Amy turn against him, Ben is forced to take on Madison, and beat her at her own vicious game.

Bradford is a convincing poster boy, but Christensen's femme fatale is far too aggressive and obvious, and their sex scenes together barely smoulder. You don%u2019t believe, for one moment, that Ben would forsake a sweet and gentle beauty like Amy for a predatory vamp like Madison.

Swimfan is inoffensive and mildly entertaining as a Friday night popcorn flick, but the overblown denouement is the icing on the ridiculous half-baked cake.