THE DEEP END
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
CAPSULE: Tilda Swinton stars as a mother who tries to hide the
death of her son's male lover and in the process gets herself
involved in a web of blackmail and deceit. Swinton gives a
very good performance, but her character is more like a cork
in water buffeted by the force of those around her than a
person who takes action. The film is tense but not entirely
satisfying. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4)
For any thriller to work fully there are two real requirements. The viewer has to have some emotional investment in the characters, particularly the main character, and the characters have to make choices that will affect the outcome of the story. If we do not care what happens to the main character we might as well be watching pieces on a chessboard. If the people in the story do not make judgments and choices then they might as well be on a thrill ride at an amusement park following its inevitable track. They just ride through the various dangers they face. In THE DEEP END we are given reason to empathize with Margaret Hall (played by Tilda Swinton), but after the first half-hour or so she is mostly doing just what she has to do. While other characters are complex and at times do the unexpected, once we know Margaret well enough to care for her, we also know the choices that she will make. And by never doing anything unexpected she loses much of her interest value. The film is almost a morality tale. Having made a bad choice at the beginning, this long chain of events is what she has earned for herself.
Margaret Hall lives with her family in an idyllic existence in a nice house on Lake Tahoe. Her son Beau (Jonathan Tucker) is a promising music student making applications to various colleges. Margaret's one wish is to protect Beau from the clutches of a male lover whom she is sure just wants to use her son. After a clandestine assignation between the two Margaret finds the lover dead. Without telling anyone she decides to hide the body so her son will not be implicated in the investigation. This leaves her prey to blackmail and a horrific chain of events.
Swinton is known mostly for roles of women who have foregone anything like a "normal" lifestyle. Somehow her unusual, almost albino, looks lead to unusual roles. In ORLANDO she plays her best known role, an immortal who at one point for no obvious reason spontaneously changes gender from male to female. Frequently she plays women of power. It is a little odd seeing her play a housewife who at least starts out somewhat typical. Of course not long into the movie she is juggling her life as a housewife with her secret life dealing with blackmailers. The man who has contacted her for hush money also shows sides to his personality we would not expect.
This is the second screen adaptation of the 1947 novel THE BLANK WALL by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding. The first was the 1949 film THE RECKLESS MOMENT with James Mason and Joan Bennett directed by Max Ophuls. Ophuls chose to use actors who would be familiar to audiences, hence making it a glossier production. The team of Scott McGehee and David Siegal who have been writing and directing thrillers since 1993's SUTURE. Here again they wrote and directed. They chose to use generally less familiar actors than the previous version. Only Swinton and character actor Peter Donat were even vaguely familiar to me.
THE DEEP END is a well-acted story of a woman who makes one mistake and then faces some fairly harrowing consequences. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2001 Mark R. Leeper