Rating: 
Summary: Oh Tilda!
Review: Let me just say it one more time: Tilda Swinton, I just love you to pieces!I can't imagine anyone not caring so deeply for Tilda (Margret Hall, here) in this movie. If you've recently seen Panic Room with Jodie Foster and thought to yourself, "See, I think I liked that, but I don't think it was done right? I think I'm still hungry for action and adventure and tense, tense scenes?" Well here's your chance to avenge your movie stub: BUY The Deep End. Deep End just keeps bringing you back in, the way the Godfather did so long ago. It chronicles the story of a cover-up which Tilda orchestrates on behalf of her teenaged son. And boy-howdy, what a coverup! This movie makes you chew your finger nails and toe nails and empty Goober boxes; it makes you weep and laugh and sigh. Also worth mentioning is the star performance of Goran V (you'll know him from ER) and the luxury of a film well shot. Tilda, my heart, you've made another fantastic movie. Five stars to you and yours.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This movie was one of the best movies I've seen. Tilda Swinton is amazing. For those reviewers who complained that there were too many loose ends I think you should stick to blockbuster Hollywood releases where everything is spelled out for you. It was pretty clear, to me at least, that Margaret was clearly trying to protect her son from the instant she saw the body. All of her actions throughout the rest of the movie are based on that one moment. Was she thinking, no she was reacting like most people do in situations like that. As far as the reviewer from L.A. who asked if there was a naval base in Lake Tahoe. Hello, it is a lake between California and Nevada not on the ocean which is the reason she didn't stash the body in kelp! Anyway, if you want to be entertained by a smart movie this is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: still waters run deep
Review: This is a psychological thriller in the best sense of the term, made by filmmakers who don't sacrifice character for cheap thrills. The suspense comes, not in trying to figure out what the characters are going to do next, but in realizing the effects that their actions have on them and the people around them. This is a moody, tense film in which the events unfold with the inevitability of a freight train bearing down on you. The directors' commentary is notable for describing the care and attention to detail in making the film. Would I want these guys to make a film of my novel? Definitely.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This movie plays around the concept of what people know, don't know and think they know. It also clings to the concept of how frightened our parents are for their children and their children's future. Its also nice that the blackmailer has a heart, the attarction between the mother and the blackmailer is also another secret that makes the son believe that he is witness to his mother's adultery as she tries to buy back a videotape of him having sex.
The twists and turns of impulse, from first the mother hiding her son's accidentally dead lover's body, she thinks her son did it, he didn't and it was an accident, leads her down the road of being vulnerable to the blackmailer. There's also an emptiness in her life because she's raising three children with a husband who's in the military and away. It becomes a question of what can a person do to protect their own and what limits we would go to in order to protect them.
The movie ends with with all of the secrets unrevealed, still hidden and the mother and son closer because they believe they see each other clearer even though they don't know the totality of the truth. And the remarkable part of this film, is that is exactly how we love people. Through our perception and acceptance of them and not necessarily the absolute truth.
Rating: 
Summary: Great eye candy, but not much nutrition.
Review: Ok. I confess. I did not buy this DVD for the story. (Though I wouldn't have bought it if the reviews here had not been, in general, favorable.) And it serves its basic purpose admirably. Goran Visnjic is VERY easy on the eyes. (And the ears. Love that accent.)
The movie has some other strong points too; the acting, from all concerned is fine. The cinemetography is very pretty. There are a reasonable number of extras on the disk, the most interesting being the "Anatomy of a Scene" film. Unfortunately, where the movie is severely lacking is in the minor details of plot ... characterization ... motivation ... believability.
I can ALMOST swallow Margaret's desperate actions. Less easy to swallow is Alek's sudden change of heart in the middle of the movie. One minute he's demanding $50,000 from her. (Does he REALLY believe that a typical middle-class housewife can get her hands on that kind of money within 24 hours? And why are they demanding that sum in the first place? Aside from a brief comment by his partner about Darby having owed them money, it's never made clear why they have decided to blackmail her, and why they selected that particular dollar amount.)
In "Anatomy of a Scene" we are told that this change occurs during the conversation on the beach. But I don't see it. Maybe the acting ISN'T as good as I think. Or maybe my willing suspension of disbelief can't stretch that far.
Presumably Alek is an experienced crook. He's just not likely to be that quickly or easily swayed by a relatively pretty face. Swayed to the point where he not only stops trying to blackmail her, but kills his partner who is only trying to finish the deal. Even less believable is Margaret's change of heart. She falls in love with the guy who's just shown her a video of her beloved son involved in unspeakable acts? Who's just been trying to steal money from her? Why? (I mean, I know that he's pretty hot, but really....) One minute she is, appropriately, cold as ice towards him, the next she is sobbing her heart out, "I won't leave you Alek!" Really. The ending, in general, seemed very contrived. Felt to me like the writers said "Ok. We've got our two main characters into an impossible relationship. How can we resolve this? We can't. I know! We'll just kill him off!" A few other minor gripes:
Did Alek really believe that the coroner wouldn't notice that Carly had been strangled after they found his body in the car?
In the first half of the film, they called each other Mrs. Hall and Mr. Spera. Later it was Alek and Margaret. This was clearly done to show their change in attitude towards each other. But given that, in our society, people are generally on a first-name basis from the start, even in business relationships, the Mr. and Mrs. seemed very forced. Do hospitals really release people 48 hours after they've suffered a cardiac arrest? (And, not the movie's fault, but I laughed out loud when Margeret asked Alek if he knew CPR. Of course he does; he's REALLY a doctor in Chicago.) What did Margaret do with Alek's car at the end of the movie? Is there really a naval base in Tahoe?
How can they afford to LIVE in Tahoe? Naval aviators don't make that much money, and Margaret is clearly a stay-at-home mother. Beau doesn't seem to be working either, but owns his own car. (Margaret also owned jewelry valuable enough to be pawned for almost 10 grand.)
Rating:
Summary: intellignet
Review: Let me say this, Tilda Swinton is an amazing actress. I have been an actress for a long time. I know the trials involved, and I know when i see a bad actress. She was phenomenal. The movie itself was at times choppy, but overall worked, It was not a THRILLER, nor was it a DRAMA. The Deep End was just life. It was life under the most extraordinary circumstances. The gay-lover death cover-up was not meant to be believable, but rather was a stage for the actors to play. This is the first re make i have seem that was good in its own self. The relationship between the mother (swinton) and the thug extortionist (visnjic) was beautifully acted. The tension between them was never fully explained. One was left to draw their owns conclusions. It was marvelously acted. The movie left room for thought. One can decide for ones self the truths behind the movie. It takes truly amazing actors to pull off such a movie, not fast paced or normal, but edgy and true. And to those of you who call the movie stupid, or dumb, and to those of you who who say you have to be a "stupid woman to enjoy it" (you know who you are...sexist), realize this, it takes an intelligent viewer to appreciate an intelligent film...
Rating:
Summary: While father was away on business
Review: Water, water, everywhere. A nicely underplayed performance from Tilda Swinton as a mother desperately trying to shield her son from a murder rap rescues this somewhat creaky remake of Max Ophul's noir classic, The Reckless Moment. Left alone to care for her family while her naval officer husband is away at sea, Lake Tahoe housewife Margaret Hall (Swinton) finds her life quickly becoming a nightmare of epic proportions. The morning after a trip to Reno, where she confronts Darby Reese (Josh Lucas), the 30-year-old sleazeball she suspects of being the lover of her teenaged son, Beau (Jonathan Tucker), Margaret finds a dead body washed up on the shore of her lakefront property. It's Darby, and he appears to have been killed after falling - or being pushed - off the dock and onto the sharp end of a boat's anchor. Accident or not, Margaret realizes that Beau must be somehow involved, and quickly resolves to cover everything up. So in between carpools and caring for her ailing father-in-law (Peter Donat), Margaret finds herself disposing of a dead body and the flashy Corvette it rode in on. So far, so good - until the doorbell rings. It's handsome blackmailer Alek Spera (Goran Visnjic; playing against type) and he's got a videotape he thinks Margaret might be interested in buying. It stars Beau, graphically enjoying "40 minutes of budding sexuality" with Darby, and it clearly links her 18-year-old son with the dead body the police have just pulled from the lake. Ophul's 1949 film stands as a prime example of a particular kind of woman-in-distress thriller that ultimately served to convince post-WWII audiences that our returning servicemen were indeed needed on the home front: Children run wild and people get killed when mom's left in charge. Taken out of that very specific social context and updated for contemporary audiences, the retrograde story runs into problems. Margaret's character is written as if there were still a war on and single motherhood was brand new (surely this isn't the first time her husband's shipped out), and she comes off as both a barely competent mother and a weak, uninspiring heroine; it gets so bad even Alek begins feeling sorry for her. Visnjic's darkly brooding good looks belie a moral center that comes to guide his actions. He projects a haunting blend of menace and innocence and has a palpable chemistry with Swinton. Sloshing her way through all the mayhem and overbearing water imagery is Swinton, and she's marvelously low-key. She lends Margaret an air of grace under pressure, and fleshes out feelings of domestic dissatisfaction - a key element that otherwise remains buried in the subtext.
Rating:
Summary: OFF!
Review: The Excellent Tilda Swinton dominates this twisted tale of 'a very bad, bad day' - a film noir about a mother's love and what she will do to protect her offspring - this time its teen-age sonny boy who is making an unatuhorized video-debut ...... Great camera work [the house and the time-lapsed shots] - and just a perfect color palate - blues, reds and then those Tahoe Autumn moments. Goren Visnjic - not just a pretty face with a bar-code [on the neck...] A talent worth watching and nurturing - ditto for Jonathan Tucker as the somewhat 'clueless' sonny boy [but isn't that the case when you're 17?] TILDA SWINTON rules the movie - it's not what she says - it is what she does not say ....... the moment when confronted with the tape - the 'murder' - the cover-up - the complications ...... Great DVD print and presentation especially the sound design.
Rating:
Summary: Too many unexplained details
Review: Tilda Swinton turns in a fine performance as a mother who suspects her young son of murdering his gay lover. Unfortunately her performance is marred by the shortcomings of the film itself. There are too many unexplained details such as how her blackmailer obtains incriminating evidence about her son and why he needs an accomplice to collect the money from her. There are also some improbable situations such as the mother dumping the body into shallow water and the blackmailer turning friendly, so overall the film doesn't make much sense. To me part of the suspense of the film revolves around waiting for the writers to tie up the loose ends, but unfortunately this never happens.
Rating:
Summary: Mom Knows and Mom Cleans Up
Review: Let's concede the main criticism of The Deep End right up front -- some plot elements are wildly arbitrary and improbable. The crotchety old father-in-law exists only to trigger a pivotal moment in the movie. And, yes, it is totally illogical for Tilda Swinton to dump the body where it will be found, but hey, without that decision, there's no movie! Suspend your disbelief, however, and what you have here is a wonderfully acted and thoroughly engrossing film. Two scenes between Mom (Tilda Swinton) and the blackmailer (Goran Visnjic)--the first when he comes upon the emergency involving Mr. Crotchety and the second at the house's shoreline after she has missed a meeting with him -- turn both their relationship and the movie upside down. In the hands of lesser actors, it wouldn't work; but with Swinton and, equally (because he must make the greater character change from coldly calculating to human), Visnjic, a viewer believes the transformation. The beneficiary of Mom's cleanup, the gay son, remains clueless from start to finish. Having early on lied to his mother, "he's just a friend," when talking about his older lover, he cannot believe that is the truth when she says the same thing about the blackmailer. Another fine moment comes when he tells the lover that Mom doesn't know about their relationship and the older man snorts, "She knows...she's a mom, not a moron." Spectacular views of Lake Tahoe abound and, fitting to the title, water is a constant motif. A bonus of the DVD is Anatomy of a Scene, in which the filmakers describe the complexities and numerous takes of the shoreline scene, making subsequent viewings all the more rewarding. Know what you are getting into -- The Deep End is a melodrama from start to finish. It is not filled with big ideas or entirely believeable. It is an entertainment, a superbly constructed, filmed, and acted one. Accepted on those terms, it merits a full five stars.
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