Clevercell Very disappointing...

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

lazarillo 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.

kenjha Two French girlfriends await their annual get-together at the start of summer vacation. The film is constructed in three parts. It starts with the story of Gwen, a flirtatious and perky blonde. The focus then shifts to Lise, a dark-haired and depressed teen who has just lost her father. The two friends come together in the final part. It's not clear what the point of this movie is. There isn't much of a plot. As the two girls undergo mostly mundane experiences, it makes for rather uninteresting viewing. Something out of the ordinary does happen towards the end, but it is so bizarre that it seems to have been added just to have a big finish.

Brian 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.

kranbot My sister and I saw this film at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago. The film seemed to drag on forever without much forward motion. When it finally ended, the entire audience burst out laughing--a very odd response to a tragic narrative. I'm not really sure why everyone laughed--nervous tension, perhaps, since the film ends on a down-note. But, it was more than that. It seems that the pacing and the setting were so culturally removed from what most Americans are used to that the film seems almost absurd. Absurd is really not the right word--perhaps the film is just very difficult to identify with due to the overlong and tedious pacing and the utter lack of humorous moments to offset the downward spiral into sadness. I hate to mention cultural difference as being a reason to judge a film, but clearly some universal message was missing. Kieslowski's _Ten Commandments_ are examples of films that depict a very different culture from what some people in other countries might experience, but Kieslowski manages to instill a sense of humanity and timelessness to his work that _Girls Can't Swim_ cannot seem to muster. And from my perspective, the two girls simply weren't very compelling. One teenage girl explores sex, the other is depressed over her father's death and does things like see how long she can hold her breath under water. Ho hum. Both could have used a bit more character development. This isn't a bad film--just a very slow, humorless one.