The Big Bad Swim

What a great movie

Not being one to jump into the water, so to speak, for unknwon properties, I suprised myself when I purchased this little unknown film on recommendation from Amazon. They recommended it to me because I am a recreational swimmer and have bought swim gear through Amazon."The Big Bad Swim" is a typical modern dramedy about a group of adults taking an adult swim class at a local health club. The obvious sexual nature of the film is downplayed with relationships being the primary theme of the movie. The cast is a group of actors with mainly TV credits to their names.The main characters are the swim coach, a 29-year-old man (Jeff Branson) struggling to find his identity, and a couple of the women in the class who just happen to be the two best-looking female members of the cast (Paget Brewster and Jess Weixler), both with excellent swimsuit bodies. Weixler is a part-time stripper, as well, just to show that even though the sexual imagery is downplayed, it is still apparent throughout the movie.In summary, "The Big Bad Swim" is a fairly slow-moving ensemble relationship film where some of the main characters pair off and become better friends. The swim class and swim scenes themselves have little to do with the plot (as it is, which is thin.) The swim class is merely the entry point for everyone in the movie as well as the viewer's entrance into their lives.While others have fawned over the writing and character portrayals, my litmus test for a movie, regardless of how good I feel about it when I watch, is what I remember about it the next morning. In this case, I remembered almost nothing. None of the characters are particularly charming or memorable and I neither suspended disbelief nor empathized with any of the characters long enough to bond with them. There just isn't much to this movie even though it won awards at a number of film festivals you never heard of.The main advantage of "The Big Bad Swim" is its price -- as little as $2 from certain Amazon vendors. Even if you find nothing you like here, that's a tiny price to pay for 100 minutes of your life dedicated to the entertainment value of this movie.

Nice mixing of a number of story lines into a whole using the swimming lessons as the binder. At first I wasn't that thrilled with the whole thing being wrapped in a 'documentary' but it worked as yet another thread.Good directing, acting and camerawork. Well aside from the documentary camera shake, but that's a personal issue.While nothing was truly wrapped up, that's the way life is so... I buy it.I'm going to have to deduct a star for false advertising. This was not a comedy. Too bad, it was a good watch.

The premise for 2006's "The Big Bad Swim" is an adult swim class at a pool in Connecticut, at which a young instructor tries to help the members of the class overcome their respective fears of the water. Away from the pool, the camera will follow the instructor and two of the students as they work through personal challenges, the resolution of which ultimately loop back through the class.The movie portrays a very human-scale story. There are no car chases, murders, or extraordinary events, just people working through disappointments, divorces, deadend jobs, and second chances. Jeff Branson is the swimming instructor, an earnest young man trying to deal with a significant disappointment, the nature of which is not immediately revealed. His heart is in the right place, and we cannot help but root for his success. Paget Brewster plays a high school teacher going through a painful divorce and trying to restart her life. A chance friendship made at the class leads to new possibilities she is alternatively eager and reluctant to embrace. Jess Weixler plays a casino card dealer and hardened part-time stripper looking for an upside to her life, who finds that sometimes, you just have to ask.The approach is generally humorous, although we are allowed to share the anxiety of the students over their fear of the water and other challenges in their lives. The plot device of having a couple of students present part of the story as a film documentary is only a partial success. However, tight direction and the deliberate, naturalistic pacing of the story carry the day."The Big Bad Swim" is very highly recommended as an entertaining and different indie film, a comedy-drama presented on a very human scale.

I liked this flick. It's different from what Hollywood nowadays creates.True good acting. Believable. Characters are engaging and their roles sympathetic. Obviously the main actors are pretty for the sex and semi-porn scenes. Yet, the story represent a more human side other than look at me I'm so pretty-type of fashion.I like that the bunch of the characters are diverse. Something that you may expect at your local "public" swimming pool. I gave the 4 stars only because they forgot to represent a member to the LGBTQI+ or someone with the new fashion gender identity. Just to be unique, not as the main point of the story.It's worth watching for sure.

The Big Bad Swim is a very good movie. It is well written, directed, and has excellent acting performances. It is I guess a slice of life type movie with a lot of human interaction. For some it may be a little slow paced or some might call it a chick flick, but I found it interesting on many levels and a very pleasant surprise. I only gave it 4 stars, but if anything that underrates this movie. Still it is not quite a 5 star movie.The movie is centered around basic premises that some people are extremely afraid of water even in the shallow end of the pool. I know this to be true as I taught such adults one summer while in college. There were four in the class that would have drowned in four feet of water if they ever fell over. The panic they felt would literally paralyze them to the point they could not stand up.Anyway this movie is enjoyable on many levels.