Swimming Review
This spare, sensitive depiction of small-town dissatisfaction doesn't really have much new to say. But Swimming explores its well-worn themes with such quiet craftsmanship that it's difficult not to admire and enjoy it. As tomboyish waitress Frankie, a pre-Six_Feet_Under Lauren_Ambrose leads the uniformly fine cast. Her wide-open face and quiet introspection find their perfect match in the trash-talking bluster of Jennifer_Dundas_Lowe, who plays brash body-piercing artist Nicola. The unspoken assumptions and hidden resentments between these two friends provide the film with much of its momentum. Joelle_Carter and Jamie_Harrold play two very different roles, and play them well, but their characters really serve mostly to spark Frankie's slow transformation from willing wallflower into something new. Director/co-writer Robert_J._Siegel captures the painful but revelatory end of adolescence with a poignancy that will appeal to fans of Terry_Zwigoff's Ghost_World and Barry_Levinson's Diner alike. Based on the evidence here, film professor Siegel should step outside the ivory tower and behind the camera more often. Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
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