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      Girls Can't Swim

      Released Apr 5, 2002 1h 42m Drama List
      71% Tomatometer 34 Reviews 33% Audience Score 500+ Ratings This wonderful debut feature captures the elusive relationship between two teenaged girls. Gwen and Lise live in opposite parts of France but have spent summer vacation together on the Brittany coast for years. The 15th summer of Lise and Gwen will be one of many contrasts, between love and desire, laughter and tears, life and death. An intimate, unflinching look at the intricacies of two girls' lives. Read More Read Less
      Girls Can't Swim

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      Critics Consensus

      The well-acted Girls Can't Swim is a sensitive depiction of two girls' coming-of-age.

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      Critics Reviews

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      Jamie Russell BBC.com Rated: 3/5 Apr 15, 2003 Full Review Jonathan Curiel San Francisco Chronicle Birot has succeeded in making a movie that has some laughs, low points and high ideals. Rated: 3/4 Aug 20, 2002 Full Review John Hartl Seattle Times Until its final minutes this is a perceptive study of two families in crisis -- and of two girls whose friendship is severely tested by bad luck and their own immaturity. Rated: 3/4 Aug 16, 2002 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Oct 16, 2005 Full Review Apollo Guide Rated: 75/100 May 13, 2005 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews An overly melodramatic but somewhat insightful French coming-of-age film ... Rated: C+ Jan 31, 2003 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member French girls' friendship becomes strained as they develop sexually. Its hard to believe that these girls were ever really that close of friends considering how divergent their personalities are portrayed in the movie. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member Whilst driven by a strong female lead and an absorbing, slow plot, Girls Can't Swim suffers from lazy direction at times, with some scenes overtly long that serves as distraction from an otherwise engrossing story. The dramatic and sexual tension between the two friends was built well only to be thrown away abruptly, leading to a shocking, if not slightly unsatisfactory ending. Despite this, the film manages to capture the viewer with a slew of emotional moments that are stringed together, on the most part, smoothly and efficiently. One feels with better focus, and more elaboration of the more crucial scenes, this could have been a great French drama. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie drags on and on without a great deal going on. Its quite a long and tedious movie and lacks almost everything. The character development is very weak and both of the lead girls are unlikeable. I wish i had marked this one Not Interested. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Two best friends that have been separated look forward to spending the summer together. All's not as well as it first appears though. Gwen is a confused girl who uses her sexuality to embrace some sort of acceptance missing from her mother and father. Lise is emotionally repressed, even being told not to cry after her father's death. It's a film that captures those awkward moments of youth, friends one minute and then arguing the next, but never really explores them. The film keeps the audience interested with the different twists and turns but mostly it is how each character deals with situations that become the most exciting part. Gwen's father is the most conflicted of all characters as he drunkenly tries to do what is right for his family and get in his estranged wifes good books once again. At the same time he is also trying to be a strict father to a promiscuous daughter and a father figure to a girl who has lost her own. Not everybody, but certainly for those who like slightly dark and awkward cinema. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Interesting French movie..delving into the dangerous and fickle minds of teenage girls... well enacted..in your face at times... Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member That Lise sure liked to put a damper on a persons day by making them as miserable as her. Reminds me of some bitch I went to college with. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Girls Can't Swim

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis This wonderful debut feature captures the elusive relationship between two teenaged girls. Gwen and Lise live in opposite parts of France but have spent summer vacation together on the Brittany coast for years. The 15th summer of Lise and Gwen will be one of many contrasts, between love and desire, laughter and tears, life and death. An intimate, unflinching look at the intricacies of two girls' lives.
      Director
      Anne-Sophie Birot
      Screenwriter
      Anne-Sophie Birot, Christophe Honoré
      Distributor
      Winstar Cinema
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      French (Canada)
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Apr 5, 2002, Original
      Release Date (DVD)
      Sep 24, 2002
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $68.5K
      Runtime
      1h 42m
      Sound Mix
      Dolby Stereo