Rating: 
Summary: Film noir with a new and not altogether pleasant flavor
Review: The beautiful scenery and sparkling waters of the Lake Tahoe/Reno area make a suitably ironic backdrop for the dark happenings in this film. Tilda Swinton plays a woman, a Navy wife busy taking care of her three children and father-in-law, whose life is shattered when her son's older, drunken lover is mysteriously killed on their property. She desperately attempts to cover up the crime and protect her son, while playing cat-and-mouse with a blackmailer (Goran Visnjic) who appears at her door with an incriminating videotape. Swinton's terrific performance holds this film together--she projects despair, grief and gritty determination with equal skill. The ironic juxtaposition of everyday life with the nightmarish intrusions of murder and blackmail is telling as well: Swinton calling banks and credit-card companies to raise cash, shifting her car-pooling schedule so she can meet her extortionist. It's not quite enough to cover various holes in the plot that might have been less obvious in a 1940s film noir (of which this has the strong feel of a remake), but that are all too obvious here. There are also shifts in character and motivation midstream that are difficult to believe--scenes seem to have been cut that might better have been left in. Finally, another and less attractive remnant of an earlier era is the homophobia which underlies and drives much of the story--the viewer will have to make up his or her mind, but I for one was left wondering why on earth this film received so much laudatory gay press.
Rating: 
Summary: Deep Snooze
Review: I had never heard of this film. Unfortunately that changed when it was touted by my mother-in-law. She literally said that it was "the best film ever made." While I am used to her hyperbole, I figured there must be something there. There isn't. The reviews I read were mostly very favorable, giving the impression of a real tight gem of a thriller. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM! The acting in this film is atrocious - people will say its good because its quiet and sincere - but all we get is a generalized feeling from the actors of "loneliness." The script is terrible. What appears to be a consciously quiet and sparse film is exposed by an old man who mutters one inane comment after the next adding nothing to the plot or character development. THIS MOVIE IS NOT SUSPENSEFUL! NOR IS IT FUNNY OR CLEVER OR ANYTHING! It portrays gays as sex crazed child molesters, and women as ultimately totally dependent on men. There is no redeeming quality of this film except that it is less than two hours and takes place on Lake Tahoe.
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious
Review: I thought Tilda Swanton's performance was decent while most of the other acting was flat. The son doesn't change expression from the beginning to the end of the film. We are just supposed to accept that he is a typical teenager, angry for no reason. This isn't a characer - it's a cardboard cut out. Same with Alec. His tone of voice is the same whether he is saying "Give me the money" or when he is supposed to be tender and apologizing. The movie was just fraught with inconsistency. If the extortionists knew about Darcy going to visit Beau, wouldn't it follow that other people at the club knew as well? Aside from that though, the movie annoyed me for the most part because the entire plot hinged on the fact that the mother never had the conviction to stand up to her wimpy son and ask just what the hell happened. I felt no sympathy for the character of Beau. He just seemed like a spoiled brat to me. The mother should have demanded a certain amount of respect from him. This movie wasn't a mystery...it wasn't "eerie" or "creepy." It was suspensful, at parts, but overall I thought it was vastly overrated.
Rating:
Summary: Off "The Deep End"
Review: Why this movie has been lauded to the skies by our elite critics is beyond my comprehension. Granted it's an exercise in neo-noir and hence not overly burdened with ideas or introspection. Unfortunately, it has inexcusable holes in basic character and action big enough for Lake Tahoe to flow through. One of them is the gay business, and this not for reasons of tolerance or homophobia. The boy in the film is only 17. He's been drinking (at the Deep End bar?) and having sex with a person the law might deem a pedophile, not a gay man. Is it probable that a post-modern suburban MOM would go to the bar with the wimpy request that the older man "stay away from my son?" Now it's true that she's a boomer and a yuppie. After all, her son plays water polo, and her daughter takes ballet. These are dead giveaways. But how much "tolerance" should we expect from her ?More probably, she'd try to get the bar closed down for serving minors and the older man arrested for statutory rape. Similarly, if she sought to reach her husband on a ship at sea, in these circumstances she certainly would say, "Yes. It IS an emergency."
Her reticence here is just another plot convenience, and a transparent one at that. Furthermore, the pacing for this draggy film, an alleged thriller, should be much faster, so one doesn't notice the absurdities. All in all, this film is just another variant, and an inferior one, of "Fatal Attraction." Once again, a suburban American MOM defends her dysfunctional home from outside predators.But here the transparently convenient turns of a labored neo-noir film strain credibility.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant movie
Review: The Deep End is a fascinating movie of desparate mother who will do anything to save her family. The movie has several side plots from issues of gay life style to intergenerational family problems. The movie starts quickly and does not pause. As the plot unfolds and the characters reveal themselves you are drawn into their lives more and more. The ending is a brilliant finish to a well written, directed and acted story. I recommend this for anyone beyond adolescence and for all who consider themselves open to the issues explored here.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing mix of film noir and family drama.
Review: The summer of 2001 has been a pretty arid one for movies, but "The Deep End" is a welcome oasis. David Siegel and Scott McGehee's film gives us fascinating characters, taut suspense and a story that is blessedly unpredictable. Tilda Swinton gives a performance of great subtlety and power as a Lake Tahoe housewife who takes bold action when she suspects her teenage son may have murdered his lowlife gay lover. She is matched by Jonathan Tucker, as the son, and by Goran Vishnijc as a blackmailer with a conscience. There have been many movies that have depicted evil infiltrating an ordinary family; the most famous is probably "Shadow of a Doubt." "The Deep End" isn't quite a masterpiece on that level, but it is still quite splendid. There are few films that exercise your goosebumps and your tear ducts equally, but "The Deep End" is one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Victims of love
Review: Being willing to sacrifice oneself is a luxury that only the least connected among us can afford. In the THE DEEP END, a modern retelling of Max Ophuls' 1946 thriller THE RECKLESS MOMENT, Margaret Hall is a mother of three willing to to do whatever it takes to keep her family safe from the irrational forces that follow her teenage son home one night from a nightclub of ill repute. But mom, played with stoic intensity by Tilda Swinton, quickly learns that heroism doesn't fit on a calendar already packed with soccer practices, trumpet lessons, dance recitals and visits to the grocery store.
Superficially the story concerns bad luck. Noirish events are set in motion when Margaret tries to cover up the accidental death of her son's unsavory friend (Josh Lucas as a spookily playful predator). The next day a man with a dice tattoo on his neck knocks on her door and demands $50,000 to supress a videotape linking her son to the death, which police have ruled a homicide. The dramatic heart of the film concerns Mrs. Hall's dealings with the blackmailer, cagely played by Goran Visnjic, ER's Slavic heartthrob in a less soapy but perversely related role.
Taken at this level THE DEEP END is an eerie joy ride that may strike some as leaning a little heavily on coincidence. But the presence of Tilda Swinton indicates that more is going on here than melodrama. Ms. Swinton is a brilliant post-feminist actress whose work sheds light on paradoxes of femininity and female power. Her earlier films include ORLANDO, in which she explored androgyny and immortality, and FEMALE PERVERSIONS, a Freudian critique of the feminist myth of "having it all." In THE DEEP END, Ms. Swinton's nuanced performance comments on motherhood as a source of both power and vulnerability. A woman may be willing to do anything for her son, as Margaret Hall clearly is, yet still be constrained by a "glass ceiling" of caregiving attachments that prevent her from achieving man-style success. In cinema, the latter typically means blowing the villains' brains out, something Margaret Hall might consider doing if she weren't so busy taking care of her kids and aging father-in-law.
THE DEEP END begins with Margaret confronting her son's homosexual lover and ends with a phone call from her husband, a Navy officer who throughout the film remains unreachable on an aircraft carrier "somewhere in the mid-Atlantic." Mr. Hall's conspicuous absence and his infirm father's burdensome presence amplify Margaret's predicament, showing how hollow the conventions of marriage and machismo can be. Near the end, Margaret seems as anxious about how her husband will take the news of their son's sexual identity as she is about blackmail and murder. In this mother's hour of need, men prove at best useless, at worst far more dangerous than bad luck, the consistent enemies of hearth and home.
Rating:
Summary: A CRY IN THE NIGHT FOR A GOOD MOVIE!!
Review: This is a one* movie, it goes nowhere, it takes u knowhere and it dumps u knowhere. Although this is a gay-themed movie,(Ithink) there is never a word uttered regarding the same.
Takes place in Lake Tahoe. Teen 'Jordon Dorrance' (Dylan Hall) gets mixed-up with gay bar owner in Reno. Has wreck on way home. Mom comes (Tilda Swinton), Margaret Hall. Finds a match book with the name 'Deep End', tah dah, ring my bells. Mom goes to Reno, tells Darby to not see her son.
Son sees Darby, Darby tells son mom was there and Dylan and mom have a few words that night. She told Dylan that Darby asked for $5,000. Dylan does not believe her.
Darby comes to see Dylan that night, and Darby confesses to asking for money. They lip-spit and throw a few punches, nothing fatal. Dylan exits to the house. and a few days later Darbys body is found in the lake. A couple of bad guys Goran Visjic pronounced(Vish-nyick) have the tape and brings it to Margaret and demands $50,000.00. She sees the tape and thinks her son Dylan killed Darby. So we have an epic struggle to get money from someone who doesn't have it and everybody trying to get it. And the camera work is like a voyeur folding in and out of rooms. And vert annoying. Actually the new comer Goran was not bad and I think he will go somewhere. I don't recommend u pay full price or wait to get in on video next month, as it won't last..Ciao
Rating:
Summary: Good Acting, Story, Characters
Review: I watched this movie from the perspective of a parent. How would I respond if I thought I'd found some evidence one of my kids had committed a crime because of a stupid mistake? The movie depicts the torture one goes through once one starts weaving a web of deception. Story expert, Robert McKee describes how stories are about choices and the unexpected outcomes they produce. This is a great example of how choices change everything. Tilda Swanton did a great job portraying the angst and agony a parent going through tough choices. There are some nice twists and character arcs in this murder story and an ending that while not providing resolution, is, nonetheless, satisfying. It does include the most graphic depiction of male homosexual lovemaking I've ever seen in a mainstream movie, so it may not be something you want to take your teenager to see. On the other hand, it does give a clear message and lesson on the effects a teen experimenting then getting in trouble can have on a whole family (whether it is a minor having sex with an adult, using drugs, etc.) The film shows how profoundly a whole family can be affected by one teen's impulsive poor judgment. This was an excellent film, but not as great as others I'd give a five star rating to, hence the four star rating.
Rating:
Summary: A Thrill-less Thriller
Review: After the much heralded positive reiviews of "The Deep End" I was expecting a taut, suspenseful thriller with academy-award worthy performances. Instead I found a slowly-paced, contrived potboiler that plodded along until it thankfully finished. Tilda Swinton's "subtle" performance is so stoic and wooden, that it is difficult to feel compassion for her character - a trait which is necessary for you to empathize with her plight throughout the film. Instead she comes across as a woman hopelessly disconnected with her family, unable to communicate with them even in times of emergency, and remarkably stupid. This is not a woman you feel sorry for as she creates as many problems for her family than resolves them. I am sure the original film, directed by Max Ophuls and starring Joan Bennet and James Mason is far superior to this poorly-executed retread.
|
