50
Without them (Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis), the melodramatic chronicle of real-life swimmer Tony Fingleton's formative years would have very little going for it.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
A passionately told tale.
75
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Rush and Davis shine, and the drama is engrossingly told until it turns sadly sentimental in the last minutes.
70
Distinguished by some unusually fine performances, but the lack of a satisfactory third act diminishes overall result.
50
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Rush has never played anyone this starkly unsympathetic, and he proves to be very good at playing very bad.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Swimming Upstream evokes time and place without being showy about it and offers an altogether invigorating experience.
50
Treads water.
50
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Fingleton turned his own story into a feel-good fable; neither Martin McGrath's gorgeous cinematography nor the hypnotic score by Run Lola Run(1998) composers Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil's can compensate.
70
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The role, one of the meatiest of Mr. Rush's career, is equal in flash and complexity to his turns as the pianist David Helfgott in "Shine" and the Marquis de Sade in "Quills."