Girls Can't Swim (2000)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This is a typical French coming-of-age movie, which means it differs quite a bit from the Hollywood/American model. First off, like a lot of French movies it is indeed pretty slow at times. While Hollywood movies tend to sacrifice realism for heightened drama, French movies often do the opposite, which isn't necessarily always a bad thing. This movie, however, seems to follow the formula of the infamous contemporary coming-of-age movie "To My Sister" (aka "Fat Girl") by being realistic, albeit slow-going, for most of the running time, but then throwing in shock ending that is as melodramatic (and unbelievable) as anything Hollywood has to offer. The jaw-dropping ending of "To My Sister" might arguably have been a fantasy of the troubled female protagonist, but that isn't the case here, and this climax is indeed pretty borderline risible.French coming-of-age movies also tend to have much more nudity and somewhat more explicit sexuality than the Hollywood versions, even though the characters (and sometimes the actors) are a little shy of eighteen. This movie is no exception. Interestingly, the younger-looking character here was played by an actress (Karen Alyx ) who was actually in her early twenties, while the more developed-looking character was played by a 17-year-old Isild Lebesco (who even then had a body that would put any adult woman to shame). Both actresses do look kind of normal compared to your typical Hollywood prom queen types, but the much more voluptuous Lebesco has, not surprisingly, has gone on to a much longer career (Hollywood and France are certainly alike in that respect).It also seems to be a conceit in about every French coming-of-age movie that an adolescent female character will inevitably become involved with an older (in some cases, MUCH older) male. I'm not sure why this is, but I think it has less to do with reality than wish-fulfillment--unlike most Hollywood teen movies, French coming-of-age movies have a substantial adult--and, especially, adult male--audience that this no doubt caters too. Anyway,the basic plot of this movie involves a pair of long-time teenage friends, one of whom, "Gwen" is maturing physically and sexually much faster than her friend. So feeling left out, the other girl, , tries to seduce her friend's father with very disastrous results for all involved. As with "To My Sister", however, this movie was directed by a woman and is told entirely from the perspective of the two young female protagonists (and if this were really a male fantasy, it probably would have been the sexier-looking "Gwen" who was involved in the lolita-esque affair and this affair would probably would have been a lot more consummated than it is here).None of this is to say that this movie is necessarily bad, but it is certainly very typical of its kind.

The pace was slow - but that's fine. Life as a teenager can be slow and drawn out, teenage summers last at least double as long as those in later life. Isild Le Besco as Gwen was superficially transparent, boys, clothes, sunglasses, her friendship with tomboy, Lise; but that was the problem; superficiality. There were no long, lingering, artistic longshots of the resort, beachlife, metaphorical flowers blooming or as in the case of Gwen and Lise's relationship, getting frazelled and decaying in the hot sun. The boys were just adjuncts, there was no character development, because they were given no characters.The implied sensuality of the two girls' relationship was only hinted at, as was the nature of the relationship of Lise's two sisters, briefly filmed together in the bath, one washing the other's back, possibly a prelude to a more frontal association, sufficient, anyway, for Lise to take her grandmother shopping to avoid any possible embarrassment.Had the girls changed perceptions, desires and interests during their last summer together been properly depicted, had the boys been human, had there been a little impish humour, this could have been a minor gem, or a gem about two minors. As it is, the acting was proficient (it's amazing Karen Alyx - Lise - was 21 when she played the role, she seemed so much a teen) the direction by Anne-Sophie Birot, adequate, but very much a woman's perspective, including the integrity of the nudity. But the ending was unnecessarily shallow; the girls should have just had a catfight and video'd it for You Tube, that would have been more realistic, although less French. Maybe You Tube wasn't around in the year 2000. It should have been, the film needed it.

The film lacked direction - where were we going? I would have preferred further exploration of the sexual tension between Lise and Gwen. What were all the erotic/romantic letters from Gwen all about? Once Lise shows up, Gwen treats her bad. The viewer had been led to believe that a certain amount of sexual attraction existed, but I never saw it at all, and that is unfortunate. It would have given an average film an "edge" over other coming of age stories.

Being a long-time viewer of French cinema, I had no problems with the pacing or style of this film. In fact, that's why I like European film in general, for a break from the predictability of Hollywood/American cinema.Actually, I didn't think the pace of this film was particularly slow. "Gwen" seemed constantly on the move, one crisis quickly followed another in her family.Both girls, as perhaps most people, seemed to have positive natures, but life was dealing them some hard blows, and neither had the tools to overcome the difficulties being dealt them.Both needed affection and love, but were going about getting in unhealthy ways. They seemed to be searching for affection almost blindly, or instinctually, to me.I felt empathy for both characters; and as for the comment that "the lead needs to be better looking," I disagree. I thought both were very attractive in their own way.