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Swimming Pool

Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling) a dowdy, stiflingly uptight successful English mystery writer is having the walls close in around her, due to the lack of inspirational means around her. For 20 years, her mystery books have been the bulk of her successful career and now Sarah is looking for another outlet from which to create. John (Charles Dance), Sarah's publicist, a man who is very serious and focused when it comes to work and money, leaves very little time for personal involvement, although it is clearly obvious that is what Sarah would like from John. As a gesture of appreciation, John offers his house in France, to help Sarah with her writer's block. Sarah, most appreciative, accepts John's offer, but longing hopes that he will soon visit her for a weekend, but it appear he has given her the brush off.

Sarah is pleased by the beauty and comfortableness of John's home and, more for the fact that privacy and quiet will be most assured, since the home is nestled away in the country complete with a swimming pool, it has everything Sarah is looking for to inspire her.

Once settled, Sarah is awakened by a starling noise. A young and beautiful blond girl is in the living room. When Sarah confronts her, the girl says she is Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), John's daughter, and she is home for some down time away from the boredom of work.

Both ladies, quite agitated by the intrusion of their space, go off to their separate quarters and try to make the best of an unpleasant situation.

While Sarah works on her new book, she becomes increasingly distracted by Julie's sensuality and promiscuousness of bringing a new lover each night into her bed, carrying on as if nothing matters. At first, Sarah is bothered by it, but soon that changes and Sarah's preoccupation of Julie's sexual appetite heightens her own need of intimacy and excitement in her life, along with becoming closer to Julie, like a mother figure.

Along with the awakened creativity of Sarah's writing and her need for companionship, Sarah will learn something she did not know about Julie's mother. But most critical, will be what Sarah discovers that Julie is capable of, something that Sarah will find out the hard way. Will Sarah be able to live with this truth?

What makes this story a puzzler happens during the last moments of the movie. I won't give it away, for I feel you must see it to come to your own conclusion as I have, but what I will say is, you will look at the movie from a completely different angle and isn't that what a mystery is all about?

Swimming Pool is one of the most original and interesting movies I've seen in awhile and the performances of Rampling and Sagnier are spellbinding.

Written by: Lynda Dale MacLean

Reviewers Rating: 7.5
Reader's Rating: 6.83
Reader's Votes: 6

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