Following the
celebration of Mother’s Day is the Blu-ray release of a movie about the lengths
a mother is willing to go to in order to protect a seemingly guilty son from
the implications of murder. This one idea carries the entire thriller, often
making this 101-minute thriller drag more than necessary, with only Tilda
Swinton’s performance remains consistently captivating. It is unfortunate that
the screenplay by Scott McGehee and David Siegel couldn’t have offered more logic,
dialogue or excitement to this performance.
Swinton stars as
housewife and mother Margaret Hall, though there is a neglect within The Deep End to give any of the various
characters a connection for accurate portrayal of family. There are no scenes
where this family acts like a family, just disjointed scenes that quickly delve
into the suspenseful situation without setup or back-story. Therefore, when we
are given the information that Margaret’s son (Jonathan Tucker) is involved in
a relationship with a seedy and villainous older man (Josh Lucas), it has
little impact or relevance. There is similarly little at stake in the
relationships within the film when a character suddenly and accidentally dies
on Margaret’s property.
My biggest issue
with this film is the lack of any communication. The family members don’t talk
to each other at all, to the point that a corpse can appear in Margaret’s back
yard and she doesn’t bother asking anyone else living in the house with her if
they are aware of the dead body. This is meant to be a portrayal of a mother’s
love, but we are never given any signs of the connection to her son, much less
her husband. The film instead stays primarily focused on the act of cover-up,
which goes noticed by someone other than her family.
When Margaret is
being blackmailed for her actions to hide her son’s involvement in the
questionable death, she is given the closest thing to a relationship that this
disconnected thriller has. At first attempting to get money from her before
becoming enamored for an unexplained reason, a man name Alex Spera (Goran
Visnjic) appears to blackmail Margaret for what she has done. The film becomes
more about an unspoken bond between these two characters, and the son and his
accidental murder slip away from the plot entirely.
The Blu-ray
release of the film does little for the enjoyment of each viewing experience.
This was a moderately budgeted independent film when released in 2001, and the
high definition doesn’t offer any improvement on the picture. The special
features, carried over from the DVD, include a commentary track with McGehee
and Siegel, a making-of featurette and a segment of “The Anatomy of a Scene,”
from Sundance Channel. There is also a trailer and TV spot.
Entertainment Value:
3.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6.5/10
Historical
Significance: 6/10
Special Features: 7/10
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