The Deep End | | Cast : | Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic | | Director : | Scott McGehee, David Siegel (III) | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | January 01, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | February 04, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 22, 2005 | | Summary | Beautifully filmed noir piece | Content
 | I really like this film. First of all it is absolutely beautiful to look at. Tahoe and water water everywhere - all sumptuously photographed.
The story is an emotionally intense rollercoaster of the lengths a mother will go to protect her children. Intense, often suspensful and sometimes creepy, this is a keeper.
Swinton is amazing here - like one raw jangling nerve. SHe is amazing to watch. The rest of the cast is fine their roles, whether shady, clueless or sympathetic.
Well worth a view. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 31, 2004 | | Summary | A rare suspense film of subtlety and depth | Content
| The Deep End is one of my top ten favourite films of 2001. This moody, suspenseful and very intelligent suspense drama about a mother who finds herself in a terrifying situation with a couple of blackmailers is told with great subtletly and superb style.
Criticised by some as being logic free, I dont disagree that some plot turns are flawed (eg anyone disposing of a body would not do so in such shallow water. Why did the blackmailers presume that the main character could come up with $50,000.00 in less than 24 hours? etc)but the taut, effortless direction, inspired casting, elegant cinematography and surprising emotional depth make The Deep End a superior and absorbing tale with characters who are truly complex and interesting to watch.
The terrific performances only enhance the enjoyment as Tilda Swinton gives a masterly, fresh portrayal as Margaret Hall, a good, dedicated mother who will do anything for her children and Goran Visnijic who adds a real humanity to his role of Alex Spera, a initially cold hearted blackmailer whose conscious starts to kick in when he fully realises what he is doing to Margaret and her family. Supporting actors are also solid and Raymond Barry is convincingly menacing in his two scenes as Spera's more vicious crime partner.
Oh, and Lake Tahoe looks absolutely stunning, a unique and extremely effective backdrop for this film' story. Excellent. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 12, 2004 | | Summary | A MOTHER'S LOVE | Content
| Ultimately THE DEEP END is about a mother's love...what she will do to protect her son, her family and their lives. Tilda Swinton is excellent as Margaret Hall, a normal everyday housewife who juggles the usual maternal duties effectively, while her naval officer husband is out to sea. Jonathan Tucker plays her son, Beau, who she discovers has been hanging out with an older guy at a gay club, and she asks the man to stop seeing her son. Once the son finds out, though, he resents his mom's interference, and meets with his lover secretly in their boat house. However, circumstances result in an altercation, and Beau runs off leaving a staggering boyfriend behind, who...well, I won't spoil it for people who haven't seen the movie.
Tucker is effective as the closeted son, and Peter Donat does a nice turn as the children's grandfather. Raymond J. Barry again turns in a creepy performance (see BEST MEN for more) as a blackmailer who plans to expose Beau's secret unless Tilda comes up with fifty thousand bucks. His partner is played by Goren Visjnic (ER, Spartacus, Practical Magic), who finds himself sympathetic to his victim's plight. Visjnic is certainly a handsome gentleman, but his performance is weak in a pivotal role; his accent doesn't help, either. But due to Swinton's perfectly controlled performance, the movie doesn't cave in because of Visjnic.
There's some beautiful scenery and neat directorial touches, such as the drop of water through which we see Swinton enter the house and the neat fade from the real mountains of Lake Tahoe to the fake ones at a performance of Swan Lake.
A very good movie, with an outstanding performance. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 22, 2004 | | Summary | A Fine Movie with an Excellent Tilda Swinton | Content
| The family is more or less all-American, the house is on the shores of Lake Tahoe, the father is a senior naval officer away on duty but back soon, the mother is coping silently, maybe a little unhappily. She has three kids. The eldest is 17 years old, a teenager who is trying to come to grips with his homosexuality. He's been running with an older, sleezy opportunist. The mother discovers this and tries to break things up. This leads to a fight, a death which could be murder, the discovery that her son is gay, blackmail and a resolution that works.
The movie, in my opinion, is first rate. It's well-acted, the son's sexuality isn't dwelled upon and is treated matter-of-factly, and the story is full of nuances. Tilda Swinton plays the mother, and the story is about her absolute determination to protect her children, especially her son. She takes steps she thinks are best, or at least best of the choices she has, and they have consequences that are seldom tidy or expected. The relationship that developes between her and one of the blackmailers is tentative and even believeable. This is a movie, I think, that benefits from being watched more than once.
Swinton does a magnificent job. She's one of these actresses who doesn't get anywhere near the recognition she deserves.
The DVD transfer is excellent. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 30, 2004 | | Summary | Good movie without many twists | Content
| The film production quality was good and the audio was good. The acting was mostly good but had momments that got over the top and lost believability. Story was simple really, the mother is trying to protect her son from a bad man who then gives way to an unexpected turn of events that are worst than the first. With everything going on she is also trying to keep the situation from the boys father who is away and would not accept the boy being gay.
The boy actually is not the focal piont of of the film. The entire story is really about the Mother and what she is willing to do to protect the life they have. It was a good movie and worthy of four stars. It has only one short intimate scene and the rest is fairly clean. Still best for those over 18 and open minded folks, may offend conservitive thinkers but not badly. |
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