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The Deep End (2001)

Director: Scott McGehee, David Siegel

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Perhaps inevitably, this suffers in comparison both with McGehee and Siegel's extraordinary debut Suture and with Max Ophuls' The Reckless Moment, of which this is an intelligent, gay-inflected remake. Swinton gives one of her finest performances yet as the woman whose teenage son gets involved with a gay hustler; when she finds the man's corpse, she tries to hide it, but soon finds herself being blackmailed. Changing the gender of her offspring spices and thickens the brew, rather than creating a whole new flavour, but the film-makers have succeeded in translating the story for the present without the melodrama becoming merely hysterical or camp. Giles Nuttgens' cool, sumptuous shots of the Lake Tahoe settings fit the mood admirably.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

E A Dobson said...

Posted on May 14 2011 19:07 I saw this in the UK when it first opened.The cinema was almost empty which just added to the atmosphere(and no gay movement against the film over here,thankfully).A really good remake which got me into the original Max Ophuls film The Reckless Moment,a classic in my eyes but this is highly recommended.

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godfrey hamilton said...

Posted on Feb 10 2011 04:20 I saw this at the Sunset 5 cinema in West Hollywood on its opening weekend; depressingly, the partisan, largely gay audience were emphatically NOT amused. Apparently they thought the movie was anti-gay (!) and I couldn't fathom their critical take on a hugely enjoyable movie - until I realised that we are not supposed to have gay villains. I had rather hoped we, as a community, had gotten past all that nonsense. Tilda, as ever, is magnificent.

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