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Directed by – Scott McGhee and David Diegel

Starring – Tilda Swinton (Margaret Hall), Goran Visnjic (Alek Spera), Jonathan Tucker (Beau Hall), Raymond Barry (Carlie Nagle), Josh Lucas (Darby Reese), Peter Donat (Jack Hall)

Length – 96 minutes

Cert – 15 / R

The Deep End is an adaptation of the novel The Blank Wall, by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, which had originally been filmed once before as The Reckless Moment back in 1949. Why remake it at all? The answer is that these days, so few would bother reading the book when they can watch the latest film, and even fewer would think about finding a copy of The Reckless Moment. As an update The Deep End works, but given the source material, feels somewhat dated.

Margaret Hall (Swinton) has just driven all the way out to Reno from her residence in Tahoe City (roughly 75 km, so it probably took her under an hour) just to tell nightclub owner Darby Reese (Lucas) to stay away from her teenage son Beau (Tucker). We don't quite know how her son has managed to get involved with him, but they happen to be pretty close. Darby agrees to stay away provided Margaret offers him $5,000. She refuses, so instead forbids Beau from visiting Reno again. Later that night, Darby drives all the way from Reno to Tahoe City to secretly visit Beau at his home, and the two meet in the nearby boat house. However, they argue when Beau questions him about asking his mother for money, eventually fighting. Beau leaves and tells Darby to go home. As Darby tries to walk he leans on a railing, which collapses. He falls and impales himself on an anchor (!), thus begining a whole sequence of events that goes from unbelieveable stupidity to unwakable nightmare.

The tagline asks, "How far would you go to protect your family?" For Margaret Hall, it's more a case of what depths of craziness will one stoop to. After she catches sight of Reese's body, you think that maybe she'd call the police or talk to her son about what "really" happened last night (she asks at the wrong time). What she does borders upon partially understandable, but is mostly baffling (and seems to come quite naturally to her), as she tries to cover it up. Now, maybe it's just my ethical standards, for it's plausible enough to consider that there are people out there who would do exactly what Margaret does. However, I believe she had a way to rectify the situation and get out of trouble. But then that wouldn't make for much of a film.

The Deep End actually feels more like a TV movie. It's a slow burner that doesn't reach boiling point till the 40-minute mark, as things suddenly become desperate with the appearance of mystery man Mr. Alek Spera (Visnjic). Unable to collect a debt owed to him and his boss by Darby, he goes to the next best thing, Beau's mother, and blackmails her with some incriminating videotaped evidence. Keeping proceedings simple means that any unanswered questions remain unanswered. So we don't know how exactly Mr Spera managed to get a video that upsets Margaret. We don't know much about Mr. Spera's boss, Carlie Nagle (Barry), whose threats are hinted at, but doesn't get to say anything himself till the second half of the film. Also we don't know what Margaret does for a living, if anything.

The film portrays a bizarre run of bad luck, showing how something as small as a rickety railing can really screw some lives up, placing seemingly normal people in an unusual situation. And there's more bizarre things happening; given his age, the character Jack (Donat), Margaret's father-in-law, is merely a predictable plot device, while someone is later falsely arrested for Darby's death. When Margaret thanks Mr. Spera for helping her with Jack, he responds with, "It happens." Well, he is only two letters short from what the rest of us are thinking.

Beau's relationship with Darby is contrasted to Margaret's relationship with Mr. Spera. Margaret doesn't seem to trust her son, which is understandable given how unresponsive he is. But after the lecture given to him, he soon slowly wonders what she's doing hanging around with Mr. Spera. The camera suddenly remains on Beau even when Spera's name is mentioned, just to add a little more suspense.

The film was made on the cheap, at just $3 million, playing numerous film festivals such as Sundance, Cannes, San Francisco, Moscow, Athens and more. Swinton's performance alone bagged her two awards (from the Boston and Las Vegas Film Critics Society) and seven nominations. Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, they started the film off slow, opening in August 2001 on just six screens. It took $141,800 in its opening weekend. They increased the venue count steadily, and by its sixth week on release it was playing on just over 400 screens. It ended its run with $8.8 million, with an extra $1.2 from overseas. Directors Scott McGhee and David Diegel tend to stick to small intimate films, as seen when they followed up with spelling bee drama Bee Season.

Swinton and Visnjic's exceptional performances (even Josh Lucas leaves his mark) and Peter Nashel's recurring musical score (constantly stressing the lack of time Margaret has), are what stand out the most when watching. However, after watching, what lingers are the questions raised about Margaret's actions and the overall message. If you believed that someone you love has done something wrong, what would you do? Would you bend the truth or just straight out lie to protect them? Not everyone who views the film will share the same opinion as to whether Margaret's decisions are morally right. But then again, they might not even engage with the film on such a level.