Tilda Swinton plays Margaret Hall, who keeps the Lake Tahoe home fires burning while her Navy officer husband is away at sea. Eldest son, teenaged scholastic prodigy Beau (Jonathan Tucker), has gotten himself involved with 30ish nightclub owner Darby Reese (Josh Lucas). Margaret, who hasn't even been approached by Beau with a coming-out chat, takes it upon herself to try to bribe Darby to stay away from the boy. When Darby winds up dead, circumstantial evidence points to Beau. Margaret finds the body and hides it only to learn, to her horror, that somebody knows enough of what happened to blackmail her. Alek Spera (Goran Visnjic) comes out of the woodwork, asking for $50,000 to keep quiet. What follows is neither what the characters nor the audience might expect.
THE DEEP END is based on Elizabeth Sanxay Holding's novel THE DEEP END directors Scott McGehee (left) and David Siegel (right) sandwiching cinematographer Giles Nuttgens. © 2001 Fox Searchlight THE BLANK WALL, originally published in the '40s. Directors/screenwriters Scott McGehee and David Siegel have clearly tweaked the material to fit modern sensibilities (for starters, Beau's character was a daughter in the book) while giving it a relentless inner logic. A lot of thrillers only work because one or more characters make dim-witted mistakes. THE DEEP END flows beautifully because its people face outrageous situations with responses that are all quite pragmatic, albeit sometimes also intensely emotional.
McGehee and Siegel do an expert job of illustrating some intricate dilemmas, such as Margaret's anxious efforts to get Beau to confide in her even as she tries to sever his relationship with the unworthy Darby. How can Mom convey to her son that she accepts his sexuality, just not his specific choice, when it's all tied together? In fact, she can't, but it's greatly to the credit of the filmmakers and actress Swinton that we understand her wordless struggle.
Swinton Tilda Swinton in THE DEEP END © 2001 Fox Searchlighthas enormous vulnerability at the same time that she is formidable, making Margaret capable of both receiving and inflicting great pain. Swinton also adroitly presents us with a character who can appear like a colorless upper-middle-class matron viewed one way, yet is vibrant and dangerous in a different light. She gives THE DEEP END a core of reality. Visnjic's role calls for revelation of a different side of the character virtually every time he appears; the actor is convincingly up to the task.
Cinematographer Giles Nuttgens provides some sunlight-saturated images that ironically counterpoint the dark goings-on and contributes lovely on-the-water shots when characters take to the lake. The film has a slightly dreamy look that complements rather than contradicts the bleak common sense of the narrative Margaret's problems have the consistency of one of those nightmares that feels like waking life.
THE DEEP END is an involving thriller that avoids genre conventions to deliver an end result that is all the more unsettling for its understated restraint.
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release | ||
Rated: R | ||
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan Tucker, Josh Lucas | ||
Writer(s): Scott McGehee & David Siegel, based on the novel The Blank Wall by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding | ||
Director(s): Scott McGehee & David Siegel | ||
Distributor: Fox Searchlight | ||
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