Ludivine Sagnier in 'Swimming Pool'

Wrinkled, but still robust in the right places, Rampling plays Sarah Morton, an English mystery writer with "a broomstick up her butt," who's as fresh out of inspired ideas as her fallopian tubes are out of eggs. At the prodding of Sarah's publisher John Bosload (Charles Dance), she takes up residency in his secluded country house in the south of France. La change of venue turns out to be precisely what le doctor ordered and Sarah's creative juices soon start flowing like Merlot at a Tour De France rest area. That is until her "little piece of paradise" is overtaken like Paris in 1940 by the surprise arrival of John's precocious and perpetually topless daughter Julie (Sagnier), who "started at 13 and hasn't stopped since."

Sarah, the block-headed writer with writer's block, has to share a house and the skinny-dipping-approved pool with Julie, the kind of girl who can't say "non." But when one of Julie's amours de jour disappears, and not exactly without a trace, Sarah uses her mystery writer's expertise to devise the ideal cover-up and Swimming Pool's plot starts to take on too much water. Still, you'll rather sit shaking your head in disbelief than leave your seat just in case Sagnier should decide to take one more au-naturale midnight swim.

Much like a four-star gourmet meal, Swimming Pool is a slow pot to boil and also a tad hard to digest. But writer/director Francois Ozon's middle courses, dished to unrepentant perfection by oo-la-la Ludivine and romp-ready Rampling make Swimming Pool deliciously decadent summer fun. And, best of all, you don't have to wait twenty minutes after eating to dive right in.

Swimming Pool is distributed by Focus Films (recent releases include The Pianist and Far from Heaven). It opens in New York and Los Angeles July 2 and expands to additional cities July 11 and 18.