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The Deep End of the OceanRating:
Release Date: 01 July, 2003 Retail Price: $14.94 OUR Price: $12.99 You SAVE: $1.95! Cast: Complete Cast (10 total) |
The Deep End of the Ocean Reviews
So Much For My "Pfeiffer Festival"
One of the fringe benefits of a major format change is the inevitable markdowns of old stock of the old format. I've been taking advantage of the VHS sales in local video stores for quite a while now. Many of them are dirt cheap, and if you still have a functional VCR and don't demand all the "extras" of the DVD format, you can find all kinds of bargains.
And all kinds of dross too, unfortunately. I purchased this movie recently, along with several other films starring Michelle Pfeiffer and was contemplating holding my own personal "Pfeiffer Film Festival," but for better or for worse, I started out with DEEP END OF THE OCEAN and that pretty much nipped those plans in the bud. I wound up shelving the other entries in the Pfeiffer filmography for another rainy day. This one was just too depressing. And I don't mean the content.
I think most people recognize that Michelle Pfeiffer is a talented actress as well as being a very beautiful woman. But like many good actresses, she seems to wind up in mediocre film after mediocre film. Maybe it was ever thus. How many truly great films did a Katharine Hepburn or a Bette Davis really do in their day. And Liz Taylor did clunker after clunker in the late 60s and early 70s. But there was a significant change in recent decades. Even our biggest stars of today don't carry films the way they once did. No one goes to see a Michelle Pfeiffer film just because Michelle Pfeiffer is in it these days. The pressure is on, then, for an actor to pick vehicles worthy of his or her talents.
A number of the reviews I've seen posted here and elsewhere have elaborated on THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN's storyline, so I won't belabor that here. Suffice to say that the story of a child's kidnapping and the subsequent emotional trauma it inflicts on an entire family is a potentially powerful one. Pfeiffer heads a strong cast, including Treat Williams as her equally grieving but more resilient husband. They all have good moments and make the most of their screentime, but the story never quite gels. And it doesn't get much better when after ten years, the family is abruptly reunited with their lost son.
The fact that the reunion is highly unlikely is not so much the problem. I'm not out to revoke anyone's dramatic license here. What makes no dramatic sense or even common sense is the family's handling of the situation. In the Age of Oprah, how come no one even considers any kind of counseling for ANYONE in the family. Many people (and many entire families, of course) are resistant to seeking psychological help, but under such extraordinary circumstances, it's hard to imagine this family not even considering the option. If not for themselves, how about for the boy? After all he's been through, even the proudest of families should feel little compunction about his receiving professional help.
Like many other reviewers who have not read Jacquelyn Michaud's acclaimed novel upon which this film is based, I am guessing that this is likely one more case in which the "book was better." A novel, of course, can indulge in more leisurely pacing, and provide more background and, most importantly, can utilize techniques like interior monologue which contemporary cinema rightly eschews. (Voiceovers don't cut it--and never did). I wonder too if the book might not have provided us with some kind of explanation for the evocative title. There seems to be a trend toward a kind of emotional topography in recent fiction and cinema (not only "deep ends of the ocean" but also "maps of the world" and of "the human heart"). Apparently, they mean something. The book may make it clear. The movie doesn't really bother.
Wow
I was anxiously waiting to see this movie on television, so to bide the time, I grabbed the book to read. The movie is nothing like the book! I am a big time reader, but I found the book to be long, drawn-out and quite frankly, boring. The movie however, is fabulous. Everyone does an amazing job, but of particular note is Jonathan Jackson. This man can act! He did a superb job. This movie is definitely worth watching.
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