Vintage film noir gets a confidently stylish upgrade in this subtle domestic thriller, intensified by Tilda Swinton's acclaimed performance as a mother who risks everything to protect her family. Adapted from Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's story The Blank Wall (previously filmed as 1949's The Reckless Moment), the film's gripping plot commences with Margaret (Swinton), a naval officer's wife and mother of three, disposing of the body of a sleazy club owner, who died in an accident after a confrontation with Margaret's closeted gay son. Maternal instinct shifts into high gear when a blackmailer (Goran Visnjic) demands $50,000 to withhold incriminating evidence, and his unspoken feelings provoke an unexpectedly compassionate alliance. Compelling plot twists aside, The Deep End gains much of its impact from the quiet desperation of a family defined by its secrets and rescued by the mysterious motivations of the human heart. --Jeff Shannon
2.
Tilda Swinton is riveting as Margaret Hall, a conscientious mom raising a family in Lake Tahoe who is entangled in a web of blackmail. While she frets over transporting her kids to ballet and baseball practice, she worries that her teenage son, Beau (Jonathan Tucker), is involved in a sleazy nightclub life in nearby Nevada. Margaret's husband is a Naval officer who is often away at sea, so she is alone in rearing her family. When Beau gets into a car accident with his gay lover, Darby (Joshua Lucas), after a night of partying in Reno, Margaret takes matters into her own hands and tells Darby to stay away from her son. A few days later Darby shockingly turns up dead next to her boathouse. Shortly thereafter, mysterious Alek (Goran Visnjic of the television series ER) comes to Margaret's door armed with an incriminating video of her son and Darby and threatens to go to the police if she doesn't pay him $50,000. The film's mystery and tension mount as the plot twists and turns--in one scene Tilda Swinton's captivating eyes frantically look on as the strangely tormented Goran Visnjic performs CPR in an emergency worthy of ER.
Directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee, famous for their inventive first feature, SUTURE, trade idiosyncrasy for atmosphere using Giles Nuttgens's fluid cinematography--which oozes with mystery in cool blues and refracted light--to set the frightening and suspenseful mood of THE DEEP END.
3.
In the comfort of a seemingly ordinary life, Tilda Swinton brings to the fore a sense of isolation as Margaret Hall, a lonely Lake Tahoe housewife whose naval officer husband spends months at sea on an aircraft carrier. In his absence, Margaret does her best to do right by her family, no matter what. Margaret's routine has always included solving one emergency after another with quick decisions. So when her eldest son Beau's lover washes up on the beachfront in front of their house, she does the only thing an unflinchingly devoted mother could: she hides the body to protect her son.
Now, unexpectedly, in the aftermath of this desperate act, emerges Alek Spera (Goran Visnjic), who knows about the death and the secret life of her son. But what begins as a riveting cat-and-mouse game soon turns into a haunting love story with self-sacrifice at its center. For as Margaret attempts to dodge blackmail, the law and even the questions of her family, she herself becomes exposed.
4.
Still waters run deadly in this gripping suspense thriller starring the "magnificent" (The New York Times) Tilda Swinton and E.R.'s Goran Visnjic. Immersed in the tradition of Hitchcock's best twists and turns, The Deep End "hold its suspense to the very last drop" (The Toronto Star) as it plumbs the depths to which even the most outwardly decent people will sink in the name of love.
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