Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Anne-Sophie Birot
Cast
Isild Le Besco,
Pascale Bussières,
Pascal Elso,
Marie Rivière,
Karen Alyx,
Yelda Reynaud
Genre
Drama
Gwen is a teenager living in a small coastal town. Lise is her best friend, a city girl who comes every year with her family to spend the summer. This year things are different though; at first Lise might not come at all, and when she does it is obvious that Gwen grew up faster than she did.
We hate to say it, but we can't find anywhere to view this film.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Ultimately lacks the epic dimension of "Y Tu Mamá También," but its vision of that awkward age when sex threatens to overwhelm everything else is acute enough to make everyone who has been there squirm with recognition.
L.A. Weekly by Paul Malcolm
The film's intimate camera work and searing performances pull us deep into the girls' confusion and pain as they struggle tragically to comprehend the chasm of knowledge that's opened between them.
The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps
"Adolesence can kill you," Birot has said in an interview. In a film that leaves the "you" intentionally vague, moment after moment she shows how.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Sensitive and thoughtful coming-of-age story.
New York Post by V.A. Musetto
It includes abundant sex and full-frontal nudity, not to titillate but because it's needed to convey the inner sexual turmoil the girls are going through.
Village Voice by Leslie Camhi
Falters when it takes a final, violent turn into melodrama.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Birot is an engaging storyteller who can inspire luminous, spontaneous portrayals, but her ending is so drastic that it feels unearned, a note of bleakness struck merely for its own sake.
TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox
Sensitive, extraordinarily well-acted drama.
Salon by Charles Taylor
It's a cynical way to pass time, the cynicism that comes from being presented with something you've seen a hundred times before.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The phrase "coming of age," when applied to movies, almost always implies sex, but Girls Can't Swim has nothing useful to say about sex (certainly not compared to Catherine Breillat's brilliant "Fat Girl" from last year), and is too jerky in structure to inspire much empathy from us.
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