Deep End

Fifteen-year-old Mike (John Moulder-Brown) has just left school and starts a new job as a Public Baths attendant, under the wing of Susan (Jane Asher) - a streetwise twenty-something female attendant. Susan knows how to please the clients and advises Mike accordingly. A typical encounter is when he substitutes for Susan in tending to a female client (Diana Dors) who forces her attentions upon him. He quickly develops a crush on Susan that soon becomes an obsession as he stalks her around town. Jealous of anyone else who gives her attention, he is particularly incensed at her casual affair with his former sports teacher. In an attempt to promote himself, Mike hijacks a school cross-country run in the park. Observed by Susan, they engage in a playful tussle where she loses the diamond from her engagement ring in the snow. Gathering the snow, they return to the empty baths to find the diamond by melting the snow. In an unguarded moment, Mike attempts to seduce Susan but cannot follow through. His jealousy and exclusive desire reaches new proportions...

I finally saw this film, remembering it from one of my cult movie books I acquired a long time ago. Always meant to get around to seeing it.

This is a strange film about a young teen boy who is "coming of age" as it were, and fumbling about with his hormones and a major crush in cloudy, dreary London.

His crush in on Susan, one of those disaffected types that works at a "bath house" where he manages to find employment. The manager tells him upon his hire, "work hard, and you might find yourself behind this desk someday!"--as if that were a good thing--while he chuckles and exposes his rotting teeth. Certainly a bit of a metaphor there.

Susan likes to tease the kid, Mike, and other men as well. She shows him the ropes at the pool house, and suggests he "plays along" with some of the female clients in the private baths, to get extra tips. Susan does the same, going a bit further than just playing around.

Susan's sexy teasings lead Mike to have a dangerous infatuation with her, which leads to some bad places.

At the same time, we are introduced to all sorts of characters, none of who are good. It seems everyone is sex charged, in negative ways; a pervy "coach" who likes little girls, Diana Dors thrown in there as an orgasmic patron, sex workers, even a young school colleague of Mike's who wants to have sex with him in her bath. You may ask yourself, what's in the water at this place?

And speaking of this place, for me, the star of this movie is the creaking, grotesque bath house. Shabby and run down, it is exactly the place you would NOT want to get naked and have a bath at. You get the impression that even the water is dirty. I have always had a bit of a phobia of large, indoor bodies of water, and if you feel the same, you will be haunted by this movie. There is a creepy, gigantic pool, which for some odd reason has a cluster of huge steel spotlights hanging above it. Every hallway, every bath is decrepit and falling apart. It looks like something that survived-barely-the bombing of London, so someone bought it on the cheap and made it a bath house. Yech.

What starts as an odd, intriguing film runs out of steam 1/2 way through. The more Mike is obsessed with Susan, the less interesting the whole thing becomes.

I had been searching for this gem for nearly 15 years, until I found it. When I did, it was as good as I imagined! The film follows the adolescent obsession of a 15 year old (John Moulder Brown) seedy (Newford) Bath House attendent. He falls under the romantic spell of a red haired tease (brilliantly played by Jane Asher), that toys with his emotions to the brink of taking him over the mental "deep end". Director Jerzy Skolimowski's film is so unique that it deals with the mind set of a sexually inexperienced youth in a way that is comedic, sensitive, and yet totally insane. Parts of the character reminded me of a darker Max Fletcher (the child character in "Rushmore") and a less calculating Tom Ripley (see "The Talented Mr. Ripley"), but totally immerssed in a Mod London invironment that is saturated in sex and seediness. What strikes me as interesting, is that you can never tell if London was meant to be represented in such a sexual red light, or if this is all just how the protaganist views London with sexually curious eyes of puberty? My one criticism towards John Moulder Brown is his English accent tends to sound more proper rather than lower class Cockney, which would have suited the story's angle. Jane Asher's performance however is truly amazing! Her use of the dialog, is completely naturalistic in approach. I always feel as an eavesdropper to someone's private conversation. Check out the scene in which her and John Moulder Brown are trying to retrieve a diamond from a pile of snow, and sprinkled in the dialog are comments of her being hungry (it would seem strange to see those lines written in the script, which leaves me to think it may be improvised?). And when she tells off the Gym Teacher (one of her lovers) and then continues to work on finding her diamond. Totally improvised and naturalistic!!! As a person like myself who studies acting, I was quite impressed by her acting, and am saddened that she has not appeared in more films (she seems to be mostly known for being the ex-girlfriend of Paul McCartney). The music soundtrack to the film is of great interest as well. It contains the song "But I Might Die Tonight" by Cat Stevens as the title track, and different variations of that theme supplied by either Cat Stevens or (Kraut rock group) Can. It also contains one of Can's most amazing tracks "Mother's Sky" in a great scene where the boy stalks his obsession to a London Club, then to a seedy Nude Girl joint which contains a cardboard cut out of her, then to an out-of-commision prostitute, and then finally to the London Underground where he confronts Jane Asher. All done with the surreal mind, of what only a 15 year old could conjure up. The film contains many surreal moments, in which the boy sinks to the bottom of a pool and eyes a naked woman swimming underneath him. Or when the boy jumps off a diving board and lands on top of the cardboard cut out in a pool. He again sinks to the bottom holding the cut out as if it was her. This film captures the complete frustration of that age, and the yearning to be a part of the sexually grown up world that is just out of reach, but keeps getting dipped towards your hands by a taller, more mature (?) tease. Unfortunately, teasing an imature boy can also have very horrible consequences. Highly recommended!!! One of my all time favourite films!!! I give it a 10!!

What starts out as a tender coming-of-age story devolves into a story of sexual obsession and missed connections in "Deep End." The story has bicycle riding teenager Mike starting his first job at a run-down public bathhouse which caters to both men and women. There is also an Olympic sized pool in the facility, which is utilized by scores of teenage girls. Mike's pretty but jaded coworker Susan is on hand to show him the ropes, and soon their mild flirtation begins to prompt Mike into increasingly bizarre stalker behavior.

The cinematography here is outstanding, with every stain, crack and spot of dirt in the grimy bathhouse evident. It certainly appears to be a place where any sensible person would hesitate to walk barefoot through, and the sets are loaded with strange signage and bizarre props. The exterior locations are expertly filmed also, and give a great impression of the U.K. at the end of the 1960's.

The acting of the two young leads is top-notch and utterly believable at all turns, with John Moulder-Brown especially likable and appealing. And certainly special mention must be made to former glamor girl Diana Dors as a blowzy blond bathhouse patron with a sexual fixation on football. She holds nothing back in her cameo appearance, and she's fantastic in the limited screen time devoted to her physically aggressive and domineering character.

Some objection could be made to the somewhat speedy manner in which Mike's character transforms from nice teenager into obsessed stalker. Some of this didn't seem too believable, although Asher as Susan is beautiful enough to almost make it work. Mike begins the film as such a sweet young guy who's concerned about his future and his family, that's it's almost unfathomable as to why he'd go off the "deep end" like he does.

*** out of *****

Vividly shot on location, this is a fantastically alive film, springing nervously and excitedly around the most immediate of instinctual feelings. Managing with precision to communicate the sensory effect of these emotions, Deep End is almost a primal film, and is told largely from the perspective of its lead male character, mirroring his understanding of the world as one of absolutes and intensities. Snappily edited and perceptively performed, this is an indelible experience.