'Pool' shallow as movie and DVD

Swimming Pool is supposed to be a psychological thriller, but it plays out like a third- or fourth-rate Hitchcock knock-off. It's frustratingly shallow, surprisingly conceited and gratuitously un-erotic, contrary to what it'd have you believe with Ludivine Sagnier sprawled out in a skimpy bikini on the DVD's cover.\nCharlotte Rampling plays Sarah Morton, an acclaimed British mystery writer who is vacationing in her publisher's French bungalow to rekindle writing sparks for her new novel. She encounters Julie (Sagnier) there, her publisher's estranged daughter, and then, nothing. At least, nothing happens for a long time. Sarah writes. Julie swims. Sarah eats. Julie sleeps around. The majority (in fact, almost all) of Pool is slow, boring and too pretentious. All of it is done to set us up for a big payoff, which might have been okay if the payoff was actually big and not as miserable as what director François Ozon delivers.\nOzon, unlike the graceful Hitchcock, has directed an incredibly sloppy film, which may explain the perplexing lack of special features. And in the end, when Sarah's publisher critiques her finished work as "too subtle, too abstract, and where's the action?" I felt myself wanting to run up to Ozon and ask him the same damn thing.