The film was panned by critics, with the plot drawing unfavorable comparisons to similar films like Fatal Attraction and Play Misty for Me.
Plot
Ben Cronin is a star on his high school's swim team. His coach informs him that Stanford University scouts will appear at next week's swim meet. Ben and his girlfriend Amy discuss their plans. Amy wants to attend school in Rhode Island but explains she will go to school in California to stay close to Ben. The next day, Ben nearly runs his car into Madison Bell and gives her a ride home as an apology. Later, he realizes that Madison left her notebook in his car. When he returns the notebook, he meets Madison's cousin, Christopher. Madison explains that she has not eaten, so Ben takes her to a diner. At the diner, Ben tells Madison about his girlfriend, but Madison explains that she has a boy waiting for her in New York City.
Although Ben tries to end the date, Madison convinces him to go to the pool. Her aggressive flirtation lures Ben in, and the two have sex. They agree to remain friends and not to discuss their encounter.
The next night, Ben goes to a party at Amy's house. Amy introduces Ben to her new friend, who turns out to be Madison. The two pretend to have not met. Shortly after, Madison obsesses over Ben—she stops by his house to meet his mom and bombards him with e-mails and instant messages. Ben realizes her unhealthy behavior and demands that she leave him alone. His lying eats at him, but before he can confess, Madison tells Amy. Madison dates Ben's rival teammate, Josh. Right before their biggest swim competition, Ben is disqualified for having steroids in his urine. Outraged and suspecting Madison had Josh set him up, he confronts Josh about the drug test. Days later, Madison accidentally calls Josh by Ben's name while they are kissing. Josh realizes that Madison's obsession with Ben is real and tells her off.
Ben tries to tell Amy everything, but she doesn’t believe him. The next day, he goes to the pool, where he finds Josh dead. The police suspect that Ben murdered Josh, so to prove his innocence, he breaks into Madison's room to find evidence, where he discovers a bottle of steroids and a creepy shrine of his belongings. Christopher warns Ben of a similar case regarding a man named Jake Donnelly. When Ben visits Jake in the hospital, a nurse tells him that Jake's girlfriend Madison survived the crash.
Disguising herself as Ben, Madison steals his car and runs Amy off the road, with Ben being framed for the crime. That night at the hospital, Ben and a few friends record Madison confessing her crimes, resulting in her arrest. She escapes custody, then enters Ben's house and drags Amy to the school's swimming pool. After watching Madison throw a handcuffed Amy into the pool, Ben dives in. Madison attacks them with the handle of a pool cleaner, and Ben grabs one end, pulling her into the pool. Unable to swim, Madison drowns while Ben frees the drowned Amy and resuscitates her. Later, after watching a swim meet, Ben goes outside to his car, where he and Amy kiss and drive away.
Swimfan opened in the number one spot at the North American box office in its first week of release, earning $12.4 million and beating My Big Fat Greek Wedding and City by the Sea.[4][5]
The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox in most countries, beating out Paramount Pictures and Miramax in acquisition,[6] but Icon Film Distribution distributed it in the United Kingdom.[7][8] The worldwide box office gross was $34.4 million; nearly a third of that came from its first-place opening weekend in the US.[2] Director John Polson credited the film’s strong opening weekend to Fox’s marketing campaign.[9]
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 15% of 93 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 3.9/10. The consensus is, "A Fatal Attraction rip-off, Swimfan is a predictable, mediocre thriller."[10]Peter Bradshaw gave the film two stars out of five, calling it a "teen Fatal Attraction with an unappetising extra helping of Scream" and saying it lacks "the sardonic wit that parts of the script had seemed initially to promise".[11]Variety described it as a "chiller resolutely without chills, in which even the pool water always seems heated. And inasmuch as the pic never owns up to its own trashiness, it's not even enjoyable camp—like Mary Lambert's recent The In Crowd—even though there's about as much underage drinking, heavy petting and full-on sex as you can imagine this side of a very surprising PG-13 rating."[12]
