SWIMFAN (2002)
Starring Erika Christensen, Jesse Bradford, Shiri Appleby, Clayne Crawford, James DeBello, Nick Sandow, Jason Ritter, Kate Burton and Dan Hedaya.
Screenplay by Charles F. Bohl and Phillip Schneider.
Directed by John Polson.
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Pictures. 86 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Have you ever wondered what Fatal Attraction would have been like if Glenn Close was in high school and instead of being an adulterous lawyer, Michael Douglas was a local swim star who fools around on his girlfriend? Well, no, I hadn't either, but apparently the creators of Swimfan did. Truth to tell, it still makes an okay, efficient little thriller.
Erika Christensen (who ironically played Michael Douglas' daughter in Traffic) does a really impressive job as Madison, a new girl in school who sets her sights on the local athletic hero, Ben (Jesse Bradford). Though he does tell Madison he is in love with his beautiful, supportive girlfriend (Shiri Appleby), being a guy he does give in when she offers some friendly no-strings sex. And of course, he finds out that there is no such thing as friendly no-strings sex.
Madison's behavior becomes increasingly erratic, sending dozens of e-mails, showing up everywhere he goes, befriending his girlfriend. Ben tries to subtly reject Madison, finally just coming out and telling her to leave him alone. Madison then sets about destroying Ben, all along professing her love. She gets him fired from his job, thrown off the swim team and finally frames him for murder.
Little things like logical time progression sometimes get trampled in the storyline... Ben has what must be ten minutes between giving his girlfriend the key to his SUV, going to the bathroom, washing his face and looking in the mirror, brooding alone, exiting the bathroom and having a two minute conversation with Madison in which he finds out she may have left something incriminating in the truck. He runs out and still catches his girlfriend before she has opened the truck door. What, did she crawl out there?
Story logic can also be a little hazy, where else have you ever seen a police officer sitting in the backseat of the squad car with a hand-cuffed criminal instead of the passenger seat in front? But logic is not what the makers of Swimfan are after. They want to be the junior Fatal Attraction. And while Swimfan is a diverting entertainment, it is not in the same class as the film which so obviously inspired it. (9/02)
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright © 2002 PopEntertainment.com All rights reserved. Posted: September 28, 2002.
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