Dr Jacques COULARDEAU A small film about an Australian family. Supposedly a real family. But you never know. To get out of the dregs of the working class in Australia, dockworker is the father, out of a family dominated by an alcoholic father who had too many children, but in those days after the second world war it was the norm, and to do it with glory and fame, that's the objective of Tony. He did it, that young son of that family who liked the piano, who loved swimming but only had his escape in mind, becoming the best in order to get to Harvard on a full scholarship. And he did it for sure. The film insists a lot on the rivalry between the two brothers pushed by the father into swimming, and swimming the same style. The father prefers the other son and gets berserk when it is Tony who wins, and that will precipitate the end. Tony's success provides him with the scholarship he wanted and he can go and swimming becomes an exacting hobby since swimming brought him what he wanted and he does not need it any more. The rivalry between the two brothers is pathetic. The father is a disaster of a father. But the escape of Tony is just an escape and does not bring much sympathy. He just goes away. And he drops the tool he worked on for twelve years or even maybe more once he has reached the object of his desire. Something is missing at the end: I guess real life is not always as much fun as a good film and does not make more than average films.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

hanster22795 Swimming Upsteam was a wonderful movie mainly about two brothers, named Tony and John, and their alcoholic father Hereld. The boys as kids were best friends very close in their relationship. Tony (the main character) as a kid wasn't good in any sports and never had a real connection and good relationship with his father, because his father favored his kids gifted in sports, such as Johns and Tony's older brother Herald JR (he was gifted in football and boxing). One day their father came with them to their normal hang out place, the pool. there Herald found John and Tony's meant to be sport, swimming. They started training the next day at 6 in the morning, for a long time that is what they did day after day. Then they had their first meet. Johns event was first, before Tony's. both of them won first in their event, yet Johns picture went on the wall not Tonys. For years and years training and winning is what happened. After years the training, competition and their trainer a.k.a their dad set these two brothers apart in rivalry and almost hatred.As a swimmer, I found this movie very entertaining and cannot understand how a normal person can find this movie bad and not entertaining. If you find this movie boring I would suggest either research on the characters (because this is based on a true story), watching the movie again and listen to the details and the cool Australian accent or start the sport of swimming. I highly recommend this movie even if your not interested in sports or swimming, because overall it is a good movie.

Purity_of_Essence87 That just about sums up this film. Beautiful. What it depicts may not be, but it's portrayal certainly is not even given justice in words. Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis were incredible. Had the film only featured the two of them, I think it still would've been amazing. Jesse Spencer also performed wonderfully, especially for such a young actor. Incredibly gifted, the three of them.My warning is this: this is not even close to a comedy and I think it's a highly emotional movie. Somewhat of a roller-coaster in that aspect. But worth every minute of film. It has just been moved to one of my favourite movies, and is now one of my favourite Geoffrey Rush movies up there with Shine, Elizabeth, and Pirates.Just see it.

aaronnz One of the best Aussie films I have seen in years. At first I thought, oh god here we go another badly acted film but give it five minutes and it starts to reveal an overlapping tapestry of characters with diverse personality's, which reflects the often too true reality of the traditional Aussie or New Zealand 1950's/1960's family. The traditionally emotional un-involved alcoholic father,this movie took me back to my own childhood and I am sure many Aussies and New Zealanders can relate. Not only does this film reflect the life of an otherwise ordinary family, who fought against extraordinary overwhelming odds. This film shows that dreams can become reality even for those of us needing to overcome extremely difficult situations. And that all of us are given opportunity's to grab and go with.Great film well acted after the first five minute lol. And with a good cast. A film, which should gain much more recognition that what it maybe has excellent 10/10