By Tanya Batson, Staff ReporterIF YOU have never seen Fatal Attraction, you may find Swimfan to be a great movie. If you have, you will either think it a great waste of time, or simply okay. Simply put, Swimfan is Fatal Attraction for teens, and not overly bright teens, or ones hopped up on enough soda to enjoy almost anything. Nonetheless, if you don't look too closely you can easily enjoy this flick.
Swimfan stars Jesse Bradford and Erika Christensen. Its plot is simple, and you can pretty much tell all of what will happen before the opening credits are finished. A high school senior, Benjamin Cronin, is enjoying a great swimming career and is on the verge of earning a scholarship to his school of choice.
By his side is the perfect girlfriend, Amy Miller (played by Shiri Appleby), who is supportive, not demanding and she is not ready to have sex yet. Her eyes are wide enough to seem like limpid pools, and show that though the lights are on upstairs, they have just been dimmed.
The two are living in romantic bliss as they make plans for the future. So happy is everybody that it is obvious that the next left turn will take you to paradise.
Unfortunately, someone wasn't reading the road signs because they took a right instead, and in comes the new girl, Madison Belle (Christensen). She is pretty, sexy, and has a touch of mystery. Thus, though Ben is happily married (for all intents and purposes) to his blushing violet, he engages in a one-night stand with this young woman, with little resistance on his part, and much encouragement on hers. As it turns out, Madison is an obsessive psycho who plays the cello on the side. What follows next could actually be an advertisement against promiscuity.
However, there are either gaping holes in the plot, or Ben Cronin is the stupidest man to ever live, though it is probably both. He does not recognise that a woman who cannot swim, has the e-mail moniker Swimfan, and she is also able to instant message him, without him giving any information to her is a case where one times one equals two. Actually, maybe all young men should watch this movie, as it could be re-named 'Stupid Guy 101'. The major lesson to learn is that, if you are careless enough to have sex with a woman almost immediately after you meet her, and she demands that you tell her, you love her, stop what you are doing, forget your pants and run for your life. Anybody who needs love that badly, is on the wrong side of stable.
Where Swimfan falls off isn't simply in the fact that it is a complete rip-off of Fatal Attraction. While that is a major drawback, what the movie lacks most of all is any real character development. They take the plot but nothing else. One doesn't see how Madison's obsession develops, or what truly motivates her character, or even as she makes her plans. This is important because she is pivotal to the success of the movie, and while she does a tolerable job, it would have been better if a clearer picture of who she is had been created. The writer and director seem to have forgotten that in this kind of movie, the audience needs to really connect with one of the characters, either the villain or the hero. In this case we get neither.
Even so, Christensen clearly outshines Bradford, (though it was not a blinding light) and almost had you rooting for her. However, she is yet to make it up to the standard of the great psychopaths. As such, you could forgive the fact that there is no development of Ben and Amy either (their names suggest they deserve to be ignored anyway) but not creating a clearer picture of Madison is quite unforgivable.
The cinematography is one of the best features of the film however. There is also some good directing which helps to create some surprise and a bit of tension, though the plot renders suspense impossible. So, if you really have nothing to do, you can go watch this movie. It beats watching paint dry, and you may actually find that it is your kind of thing, assuming you like paint.
