THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN 1999
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1999 Timothy Voon
3 out of 4 for a little boy lost
Director: Ulu Grosbard Writer: Stephen Schiff, book by Jacquelyn Mitchard Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams, Jonathan Jackson, John Kapelos, Ryan Merriman, Whoopi Goldberg
It is easy to label something sentimental or tear jerking when one has not experienced the heartache of losing a child – whether that may be in life or in death. After having said that, I will also say that this movie does all of the above very well. One gets that choking sensation in the throat (because of grief) when one brother forgives another for a costly mistake, or when a husband hugs his wife after a long estrangement.
There is no ocean, no drownings and it does not conjure up memories of yet another ‘Ordinary People'. In fact the only thing remotely connected to the ocean is probably tap water and the toilet flushing (not that this literally happened in the movie). So what are the lessons learnt: 1. Don't take your children to class reunions. 2. Don't leave them alone in the lobby, not even for a second.
Michelle Pfeiffer once again plays the role of a highly-strung wife and mother, a trend that started with ‘A Thousand Acres' and ‘One Fine Day'. My comment is that she is exceptionally fine strung in this movie, so much so that when she has a nervous break down, the veins on her temples bulge impressively. Whoopi Golberg also puts in an understated performance, playing a lesbian cop, with a name that makes one want to reach for a lollipop. Lastly, who are the ideal companions for this sort of movie – my grandmother comes to mind.
Timothy Voon
e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
Movie Archives http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Tim+Voon
Movies In Melbourne
http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~pfowler/week/movies.html
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