Adapted from Jacquelyn Mitchard's best-seller - which had the distinction of being the first novel honored as an Oprah Winfrey book club selection - "The Deep End of the Ocean" is a flawed but often effective family drama that turns on the deepest fear of every parent or guardian: that one dumb move, a single moment of neglect that can turn the rest of your life inside out.
Though she somehow keeps things together, forgetful and disorganized Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) is no model mom. But neither does she deserve what happens to her after she makes the foolish decision to take her three kids to her high school reunion in Chicago. Shortly after the family arrives in town, Beth's 3-year-old son Ben disappears, sparking a frantic search that culminates with Beth standing outside a detectives' office, listening to cops speculating about whether or not Ben is still alive.
Predictably, the effect of this on Beth, her husband Pat (Treat Williams) and the Cappadora's 7-year-old son Vincent (Cory Buck) is cataclysmic, and director Ulu Grosbard manages to make this section of the story both taut and heartwrenching. In one of the movie's sharpest scenes, Vincent uses his baby sister Kerry to curtail a bitter fight between Beth and Pat, who accuses his wife ofhaving "made a career out of being unhappy."
At this point, "Ocean" jumps ahead nine years to show us the aftermath of the tragedy on the household; the Cappadoras have survived, but everyone's a little worse for the wear. Then everything changes again, thanks to a near-miraculous discovery, the kind of twist of fate that tends to happen more often in literature than in real life.
But if the plot goes off the deep end, even throwing in a caring detective (Whoopi Goldberg) who becomes Beth's best friend, the movie's emotional core is solid and the understated performances - a Grosbard trademark - ensure that "Ocean" gets the tearducts working overtime. Pfeiffer, Buck and Jonathan Jackson (who plays Vincent at age 16) are particularly good at getting across their characters' emotional states without grandstanding.
Credit screenwriter Stephen Schiff (who did the similarly subtle recent adaptation of "Lolita") with keeping what could have been a soapy free-for-all under control. Once it has exhausted its surprises, "Ocean" calms down to become a thoughtful, observant study of self-persecution and the power of forgiveness.
James Sanford
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews