THE DEEP END
US, 2001, 101 minutes, Colour.
Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan Tucker, Peter Donat, Josh Lucas, Raymond J. Barry.
Directed by Scott Mc Gehee and David Segal.
The Deep End is a thriller based on a novel by Elizabeth Holding. However, it is very similar in plot to the 1949 Joan Bennett and James Mason film, The Reckless Moment.
The film was written by Scott Mc Gehee and his partner David Segal (also responsible for The Bee Season as well as Uncertainty).
The film is a strong vehicle for Tilda Swinton, an actress who appeared in many offbeat and independent films, especially for Derek Jarman, but also appeared in mainstream films and won an Oscar as best supporting actress in 2007 for Michael Clayton. She is very good in the role of the concerned mother who discovers her son has a homosexual orientation and confronts the man who had seduced him. When there is a struggle and the seducer dies, she assumes that her son has killed him and disposes of the body in Lake Tahoe. However, the death was an accident – but blackmailers arrive with a video of the two men together and pressure Margaret to find money. The film shows her desperation, even while having to do ordinary things as well as care for her father-in-law who has had a collapse, and the film moves to a satisfying end as one blackmailer turns against the other and saves Margaret. However, the questions still remain about what will happen in the family, especially concerning the young man’s sexual orientation and his navy father’s seeming inability to accept this.
1.A family drama, a thriller, the combination? Effective?
2.The title, realism and the swimming, the lake, disposing of the body in the lake? The metaphor of going off the deep end?
3.The Lake Tahoe setting, Tahoe City, audiences identifying with it, the beauty of the lake, the highways, the forests, homes, banks, hospitals, the ballet performance? The musical score?
4.The initial accident, Beau and his being involved, Darby and his being drunk? Margaret discovering the relationship between the two? Her husband being away at sea? Her children at home, schooling, ballet? Her father-in-law and his health?
5.Beau, age seventeen, confused, sexual identity? His meeting with Darby, the relationship, the club, Darby drunk, the car accident? Margaret and her confrontation with Darby in the club? Darby’s visit, showing Beau that he actually was after money? Margaret offering to pay him to keep away? Darby’s lies, the struggle with Beau? Beau going back into the house, the railing giving way, Darby’s death? The later screening of the video with Beau and Darby?
6.Beau and his silence, his relationship with his mother, not communicating? Puzzled by his mother’s behaviour, doing ordinary things, the applications for college, playing his flute? His concern about Alek Spera? His going to the hospital, signing out his grandfather? His mother asking him to drive, his observing her and the car crash, his final support of his weeping mother?
7.Margaret, the visit to the club, her concern about her son? Her looking after her father-in-law? Going for the walk, discovering the body, making assumptions of what had happened, her decision to take the body, the boat, rowing, disposing of the body? The cover-up? Her puzzle whether Beau had killed Darby or not?
8.Spera and the confrontation, the demand for the money, the shock, his visit, showing the video? The children coming in and out? Margaret and her not having the money? The phone calls, the visits to the bank, needing her husband’s signature, failing to get the money? Spera and his pressure? Meeting him, his coming to the house, the father-in-law collapsing and his helping with first aid?
9.Alek and his debts to Nagel? Nagel and his sinister presence, completely callous? Not believing Margaret? Wanting the full money? The meeting with Alek, the visit to the house, his assault on Margaret? Alek coming? His having accepted the lesser money after Margaret pawned her jewellery? Alek rescuing her in the shed, his being wounded, organising the escape, driving the car, the crash because of his wounded arm and loss of control, his death?
10.Nagel as brutal, the fight with Alek, his death, carried to the car to be disposed of?
11.Margaret upset, yet having to do the ordinary things, with the neighbours, collecting children from school, her daughter and the ballet class, the car not working, having to get taxis, desperate? Pawning her jewellery?
12.Finding the car, with Beau, her grief at Alek’s death, weeping in her room? Beau not understanding but supporting his mother?
13.Issues of family, sexual orientation and coping, blackmail, the thriller and violence? A portrait of a concerned parent?
