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Swimming (2002)
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:29
Rotten:10
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: A refreshingly low-key coming-of-age story.
Theatrical Release:Apr 5, 2002 Limited
Synopsis: It's the start of another Carolina summer, and it's becoming increasingly clear to Frankie Wheeler (Lauren Ambrose), a young local, that she wants more out of life than Myrtle Beach can offer her.... [More]
Starring: Lauren Ambrose, Jennifer Dundas Lowe, Joelle Carter, Jamie Harrold
Director: Robert J. Siegel
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Reviews for Swimming
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 3.5/5 |
Click to read the article Full Review |
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 2/5 |
No review available.
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B- |
The anti-touristy mood of Siegel's film sets it apart from other less thoughtful teen beach flicks. Full Review |
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2.5/5 |
Click to read the article Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
[Siegal] proves that you don't have to be a just out of film school Gen-X'er to make a resonant and entertaining movie about young adults. Full Review |
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Flawed, but worth seeing for Ambrose's performance. Full Review |
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Unlike most teen flicks, Swimming takes its time to tell its story, casts mostly little-known performers in key roles, and introduces some intriguing ambiguity. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
Though the material sounds complex and potentially sleep-inducing, director Robert J. Siegel paints his portrait of boredom and discontent with deft strokes. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
A gracefully acted, unsentimental, quite likable little coming-of-age movie. Full Review |
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B+ |
Click to read the article Full Review |
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The film is an earnest try at beachcombing verismo, but it would be even more indistinct than it is were it not for the striking, quietly vulnerable personality of Ms. Ambrose. Full Review |
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The town has kind of an authentic feel, but each one of these people stand out and everybody else is in the background and it just seems manufactured to me and artificial. Full Review |
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2.5/4 |
Swimming isn't a major film. Nor does it try to be. But what, in the end, is a major film? If it's one that accomplishes what it sets out to do, then we ought to correct ourselves. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
An unusually dry-eyed, even analytical approach to material that is generally played for maximum moisture. Full Review |
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3/4 |
A refreshingly authentic coming-of-age tale. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Swimming is above all about a young woman's face, and by casting an actress whose face projects that woman's doubts and yearnings, it succeeds. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
A well-crafted film that is all the more remarkable because it achieves its emotional power and moments of revelation with restraint and a delicate ambiguity. Full Review |
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As relationships shift, director Robert J. Siegel allows the characters to inhabit their world without cleaving to a narrative arc. Full Review |
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1/4 |
Offers absolutely nothing I hadn't already seen. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Keenly observed and refreshingly natural, Swimming gets the details right, from its promenade of barely clad bodies in Myrtle Beach, S.C., to the adrenaline jolt of a sudden lunch rush at the diner. Full Review |
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