The Deep End of the Ocean

All praise goes to Jonathan Jackson who saves this sticky sentimental crap movie. The screen lights up whenever Jackson enters as Beth and Pat Cappadora's oldest son Vincent. You can feel the torment in that adolescent body. Why the heck is it so hard for his parent to understand him?

If you like the Vincent character I can recommend you to read the book by Jacquelyn Mitchard. It's about as sentimental as the movie (if not more) but interesting in the way that it is told through a shared view, with both Beth and Vincent narrating the story. In the book we learn a lot more about Vincent and his life, why he became who he is and what he thinks and feel about the whole situation. Most of the time seen from Vincent's view is spent at his psychiatrist Tom, a character they completely cut out of the movie. That's too bad, because that's where all the action really takes place. Vincent is a really messed up kid, and the scenes between him and Tom are both funny and thoughtful.

In the book Vincent also suffers from panic attacks, something experienced by many teens and that could have been used in the movie as a good identification issue. Sadly, that was cut out too. Basically, what they have done is taken what is in the book a multilayered and very interesting character, and turned him one-dimensional and less inspiring. What we can be thankful for is Jonathan Jackson who I think does a great job with the little he is given. Ryan Merriman, who plays the lost son Ben/Sam is also very good.

But otherwise this movie seems like a made-for-TV-sleeze-thing and I can't stand the bad acting put up by the adults. Michelle Pfeiffer can be really good in roles that are more toned down than this one and her overacting everything is annoying. Treat Williams is mostly just vacant. Whoopi Goldberg on the other side does a fine job as a minority within the majority: a black, lesbian cop that befriends the family. Basically: you can get a lot out of reading the book if you just skip the parts about Beth.

Michelle Pfeiffer delivers a great performance as a mother who loses her 3-year old son when she leaves him alone for a minute with his older brother. The movie is not only about how a missing child can affect one's life, but it gets stranger after the family moves to a different city and one day a child who looks exactly like the msising boy is spotted.

I personally had a little difficulty about the happenstance this would have to take in order to happen, but it did lead to interesting questions on how a (possible) reunion after such a long time would play out. Pfeiffer acts with a lot of feeling without it becoming over the top, so she steals the show in my opinion. The other actors do a fine job, but not as excellent as her. There are a lot of themes from different perspectives, so it is shown e.g. How the child feels, how the "other" kids are affected as well, even how it is for a police officer working the case.

However, I do feel the movie was lacking, though I have a hard time putting my finger on why that is: seeing what I've written above makes me feel like this movie is good, at least on paper. But the experience itself wasn't so great. I just felt bored a lot of the time and the movie seemed longer than it's runtime of about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I wasn't really in it, even though usually this type of movie is very heartfelt and captivating. Nothing - apart from Pfeiffer's performance - stood out. Perhaps it can also be attributed to the long time spent on filming what happens in the 9 year period the boy is missing. In any case, it felt like it wasn't going anywhere and my attention was often lost.

If you don't have anything better to watch, I recommend you view this movie yourself and judge if it's good or not. For me, it left me unsatisfied, but because of Pfeiffer and because of how much work obviously went into making this movie, I felt a 5 was too low a score.

I think that I would have liked this movie a LOT more if I'd never read the book! If anyone of you have the chance, READ the book! Oh, it's AWESOME!!! In my opinion, the movie left out some stuff that would have made it a LOT more interesting!!! Some people seem to think that parts of the movie are unrealistic, but when you read the book and get all the detail and everything, it starts to become a lot more believable than it is in the movie. Plus, the older brother has a MUCH larger role in the book, which makes more sense than how they protrayed him in the movie. Anyway, I guess you can tell, what I'm trying to say is, READ THE BOOK!!!! :-)

Beth Cappadora is at a reunion in a hotel when her middle child of three goes missing. At first the search is informal but it grows increasingly frantic and official as they realise that Ben has been taken by somebody. The family never fully recovers and carry the scars for years. Nine years later the family have moved to Chicago to start a new life. When Beth has a local boy come to the block to cut the grass, she believes that he must be Ben because her looks just like him despite the age. The police recover Ben but is it fair to take him away from the people Ben now considers his family?

The plot summary gives the impression that this is just a standard weepy that would easily screen on a weekday afternoon. However the presence of a couple of well known names in the cast list suggests that this film will give the subject a more serious approach that acts more as drama than weepy. Partly the latter is true but not 100%, and the film is still essentially a sort of weepy that has a control of it's emotions and is actually quite stable but not to the point where it is an engaging debate.

The material should be thought provoking but it isn't really. What I thought would be the main thrust of the film was really just mentioned in the final 20 minutes and it was not only obvious that it was coming but it was quite logically dealt with without real emotion - this is not a `Sophie's Choice' situation but something quite lacking. The start of the film is OK but it deals with the loss too easily and I never got overwhelmed with the emotions the family must feel. Towards the end the film does a good job looking at the effects the whole thing has had on the other son's character but even this lacks an emotional punch.

The cast are good on paper but they seem strangely stilted. Pfeiffer is a good actress who sadly doesn't seem to get as much good work as she gets older. Here she tries hard but can't get across what her character must be feeling inside. Williams is an OK support for her and does OK. Jackson is quite good and his character became more interesting to me than the return of Ben itself. Goldberg hangs around but attempts to give her a character through one line of dialogue about her sexuality and security in her job are so out of the blue that I was left wondering where it came from.

Overall this is not a weepy because it aims higher than that and doesn't wrench all the emotion out of every scene to get the audience. However it doesn't aim high enough or reach the level where it is emotional or thought provoking, the end result being an interesting film that is a notch above the level of daytime TV weepy but not as worthy or moving as it wants to be.

Ulu Grosbard has directed this fine adult drama adapted from the best-selling novel by Jacquelyn Mitchard. Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams portray Beth and Pat Cappadora, parents of three youngsters. On a trip to her high school reunion, Beth loses her three year old son in a busy hotel lobby. The boy is absent from the family for nine years, after which he is surprisingly returned to his birth family. This is just the bare bones of the plot. However, it is the touching performances of all of the principals which transcend the television movie-of-the-week sound of the plot.

Michelle Pfeiffer adds another moving performance to her gallery of roles. If the film had been released in the fall of 1998, as was originally planned, she might have had an Academy Award nomination. Treat Williams' role is less defined, but it is alway a pleasure to watch this under-used and under-rated actor. However, it is Jonathan Jackson and Ryan Merriman as the oldest son and the lost boy who make this such an emotionally satisfying drama. Whoopi Goldberg adds some needed humor to the serious proceedings as the detective assigned to the case.

Stephen Schiff, writer for the New Yorker, has done a lean adaptation of the novel. Grosbard has unpretentiously directed this fine cast. "The Deep End of the Ocean" is one of the best contemporary dramas to come along in quite a while.