Every
year Hollywood offers a back-to-school film, and for 2002
the scary offering is Swimfan, directed
by John Polson. Ben Cronin (played by Jesse Bradford) is a
senior at a high school in New Jersey (though the filming
is on Long Island); he is a top swimmer. Coach Simkins (played
by Dan Hedaya) tells him to focus on perfecting his swimming
because a Stanford recruiter will be on campus for a swim
meet in ten days. Ben lives with his mother, as she divorced
his father on the grounds of infidelity, and a Stanford scholarship
would open up opportunities for a better life. Ben got in
trouble after the divorce and served six months in a juvenile
detention facility, where he learned the joy of swimming.
Ben's girlfriend Amy Miller (played by Shiri Appleby) provides
a lot of support to him, and they are very much in love. On
the first day of school, however, Madison Bell (played by
Erika Christensen) asks Ben to break into her locker and later
tries other ploys to take him away from Amy. In one of her
schemes, they end up in the pool together, she corners him,
reaches into his swimsuit, and they kiss. But eighty-one emails
under the screenname "swimfan" and numerous other
conversations and unexpected encounters are too much, constituting
stalking, so Ben tells Madison to back off. Then Madison takes
revenge. She switches medicines on a tray in the hospital
where Ben works part-time, a patient nearly dies, and Ben
is fired. She gets steroids into Ben's body before the important
swim meet, so he is disqualified. Next, she frames him for
killing a fellow swimmer; she runs Amy off the road, also
framing Ben; she knocks Ben and his mother unconscious; and
then she tries to drown Amy. So what's the reason for Madison's
sociopathic behavior? Has she decided to put her knowledge
of Fatal Attraction (1987) to work?
Her parents are in Europe, she says, so she is living with
relatives, and they have quite a mansion. She comes on strong
with guys. She claims to have a boyfriend in New York. Curious
about her obvious psychological malady, Ben decides to sneak
into her room in the mansion, finding out that she saved clippings
about him as well as mementos. All of a sudden, as she is
about to enter her room, her nerdy cousin Dante (played by
James DeBello) appears, gives Ben a box, and shows him how
to exit without being discovered. When Ben later opens the
box, he discovers that Madison's New York boyfriend was a
high school baseball player, whose clippings she also saved.
Soon, Madison drives Ben to a nursing home, and Ben discovers
that her baseball boyfriend is in a coma, so he adds up the
clues, organizes a way to trap Madison, and the climax of
the film is how she gets caught. What's the point of the film?
As a welcome-back-to-high-school film, does Swimfan
warn high school students to be faithful to their girlfriends,
to keep their eyes on the prize, and to beware the newest
slut in school? As a date film, the result may instead be
a lot of sexy action in the pool. MH
I
want to comment on this film
