Review of Swimfan (2002) by James S — 11 Jan 2011

Basically, Swimfan is Fatal Attraction for the Dawson's Creek audience. So reminiscent is it in parts and certain scenes that it might be bordering on copyright laws. That doesn't stop Swimfan from being quite a bit of fun though.

Erika Christensen puts in a decent performance as Madison, the new, insanely hot, girl in town who takes a shine to the comparatively wooden Jesse Bradford, the schools swim team superstar with a girlfriend played by one of those actresses that look a bit like Katie Holmes, but isn't. Soon, the well meaning Bradford is taking a swim in the deep end of desire with the wrong girl and finds out he can't just towel himself off without meeting some severe consequences.

Swimfan has all the requisites of this kind of thriller. There's the creepy guy who may know more than he does, newspaper clippings discovered. But for a teen movie, Madison does have a real mean streak. She takes things above and beyond the usual revenge stuff you'd find in this kind of youth orientated movie. Christensen makes her a very believable villain too, which is why it's a shame that the story becomes a little muddled. Her motives never really become as clear as they should and her end game is never really explained either. It's more a case of "Oh, she was just a bit nuts".

The finale is unfortunately telegraphed way too far in advance and the film screeches to a rather abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion. Swimfan is certainly not amongst the bets of the teen films that the early noughties, late nineties produced but predominantly thanks to Christensen, it is an enjoyable piece of psycho thriller fluff.