Aussi profond que l'océan

I never heard of Deep End of the Ocean until it showed up on cable the other night. The whole time that I watched it, I thought that it was a made for cable movie. Pretty good performances--I think some of the other reviewers came down extremely hard on this movie. Not generally my kind of movie(emotional chick/family movie), but I was pleasantly surprised, even though I must say that it did have that "Lifetime Channel", feel about it. 7/10 stars

Here we have a story that starts slowly but develops into a tense emotional drama. Michelle Pfeiffer is not only nice to look at but she plays the role of a frantic mother in search of her abducted 3-year old with great passion and at times hysteria. Whoopi Goldberg who plays the part of top policewoman in charge of investigation gives a moving sympathetic performance. What I greatly admire in this actor is the clear enunciation of her speech. I missed not a word delivered with clarity and depth of meaning. The film explores the feelings of children and parents caught up in the problems associated with child adoptions. Where does this baby belong: with his biological mother or his adopted father? It's an interesting film because the problem is real and with us to-day. The ending may surprise you.

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.

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.

Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) is at her high school reunion when her 3-year-old son disappears from his brother's care. The little boy never turns up, and the family has to deal with the devastating guilt and grief that goes along with it. Nine years later, the family has relocated to Chicago. By a sheer fluke, the kid turns up, living no more than two blocks away. The authorities swoop down and return the kid to his biological parents, but things are far from being that simple. The boy grew up around what he has called his father, while his new family are strangers to him; the older son, now a teenager, has brushes with the law and behavioral problems. His adjustment to his lost brother is complicated by normal teenage churlishness, and the dad (Treat Williams) seems to expect everything to fall into place as though the family had been intact all along. It's a tightrope routine for actors in a story like this, being careful not to chew the scenery while at the same time not being too flaccid or understated. For the most part, the members of the cast deal well with the emotional complexity of their roles. Though the story stretches credulity, weirder things do happen in the real world. The family's pain for the first half of the film is certainly credible, though the second half almost seems like a different movie. Whoopi Goldberg plays the detective assigned to the case; casting her is a bit of a stretch, but she makes it work. All in all, a decent three-honky movie in the vein of Ordinary People.