Review of The Pool (2001) by Nathan H — 15 Nov 2007

"Swimming Pool" is a moody, well-acted drama, pitting Rampling against Sagnier in a young vs. old mind game (much like "Notes on a Scandal") that turns out to be pretty tense, and--in the end--weirdly touching.

Lots of nudity thrown in, which heightens the tension. But also, lots of ambiguity added, which ultimately winds up purposely confusing the viewer...The ending of this film, in particular, is designed to deliberately cause the viewer to question everything that came before it. Unfortunately, though, it seems to be an obvious plot twist for a plot twist's sake. The filmmakers would love it if viewers were "blown away" by the ending...but that isn't the case. We're mostly pissed off that the filmmakers decided to play games with us.

Memo to filmmakers: we're allowed one "mind game" movie every ten years, and "The Usual Suspects" and "The Sixth Sense" have given us more than enough mind games for the next few decades. (And the thing about those movies: the endings actually worked).