| THE DEEP END |
 2001 – USA
Directors: Scott McGehee, David Siegel - Reviewed by Jerry
That's the set-up for The Deep End, an engrossing, finely tuned noir thriller that was written, directed and produced by a pair of sophomore Orange County, Calif., filmmakers, Scott McGehee and David Siegel. Based on Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's "The Blank Wall," The Deep End owes as much to Alfred Hitchcock as it does to the 1940s novel. (An earlier film incarnation, 1949's The Reckless Moment, starred Joan Bennett and James Mason.) Hitchcock was a master at taking ordinary people and placing them in extraordinary situations for the sake of suspense. And in The Deep End, McGehee and Siegel (who first collaborated on 1994's "Suture") do the same. The screws tighten for Margaret (Scottish actress Tilda Swinton) with the arrival of Alek Spera (Goran Visnjic from NBC's "ER"), who has an explicit videotape of Beau and Darby during a sexual encounter. Alek offers to sell it to her for $50,000—or he will take it to the police. In the midst of everything else going on in her life, she desperately tries to raise the money. But that kind of cash isn't easy to come up with in 24 hours. One of the big reasons The Deep End works as well as it does is because of Swinton's powerful performance. Don't be surprised in February if she's one of the five Oscar finalists for best actress. Her work is that good. Lacking the striking Hollywood looks of, say, an Ashley Judd or Charlize Theron, that makes Swinton's Margaret all the more believable. After roles in a series of little-seen movies—including an acclaimed turn as both a man and a woman over a span of 400 years in 1993's art-house release "Orlando"—this could be considered her breakout performance. Another high-water mark is the brilliant camerawork of Giles Nuttgens, winner of the best cinematography award when the film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Like so many Hitchcockian masterpieces, The Deep End is a visual gem. In one of the more interesting camera angles, Margaret is seen entering the kitchen through a drop of water hanging from a faucet. The movie, however, does spring a few leaks. Why, for instance, didn't Margaret dump Darby's body in the deep end of the lake where it wouldn't be visible from the surface? And, sorry, but Alek's quick transformation from a blackmailing tough to a sympathetic nice guy is too much, too soon. The relatively few odd moments are overshadowed by Swinton's brilliant turn as the mother who will do anything to protect her children. It truly is one of the year's best acting performances, male or female. |
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Your teen-age son falls under the influence of a sleazy
nightclub owner, who later gets the high school senior
involved in a serious traffic accident.
What's a mother to do?
If you're Margaret Hall, a Lake Tahoe housewife with a
U.S. Navy officer husband who's often away at sea, you
confront good-for-nothing Darby Reese at his Reno club and
make it clear he's to stay out of your son's life.
He says he will, but you know he won't.
Days later, you find Darby's body washed up on the
shore near your lakefront home.
Fearing your son, Beau (Jonathan Tucker), is involved
in a murder, you tie an anchor to the feet of the corpse,
load it into a boat and take it to an area of the lake
where you don't think it will be found. 