Customer Reviews

The Deep End of the Ocean

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Trust me-----this does NOT play like a TV movie. It is a well written story about a mother of 3 who has her youngest boy kidnapped from her. Michelle Pfieffer's performance was great as always----but the REAL star of this movie was Ryan Merriman (as her son, Ben Cappadora). Such talent and emotion for someone so young.

"The Deep End of the Ocean" is one of the best movies of 1999, complex and moving, with truly emotional characters played by actors who carry the weight of the story on their shoulders with incredible ease and make it heartwarming and believable. The movie is actually two different stories, one being a family's emotional coming-to-terms with a missing child, and then the pain and stress they must endure when he shows up nine years later.

On her way to her high school reunion, Beth Cappadora is told by her husband that if her head wasn't attached to her, she would lose it quickly. This provides a short laugh, while also setting up what is to come. At the reunion, she leaves her three-year-old son Ben in the care of his older brother Vincent, only to come back moments later and realize that he is gone. Hysterics grow, and after a thorough search of the building, he is nowhere to be found. Surrounded by family and friends, Beth begins to cope with her mistake as the community gets involved in the search for Ben, without success. Resigned to the fact that he will never be found, she returns home, and while the first steps to coping with what has happened are rocky, the family seems to be getting along well after the passage of nine years. They have moved to a new house in a new town, her husband has the restaurant he always wanted... A knock on the door turns everything upside down. Beth immediately recognizes the boy as her son, and is relieved and confused that he lives only two blocks away from their new residence. The authorities get involved, and soon Ben is taken from the only home he can remember and placed in a new and somewhat emotionally frightening setting where he is called by a name he does not know and lives with people he does not remember or feel much for.

What makes this movie work for me is the complexity of the story as well as the characters, and the magnificence in which the two blend together. The first part of the story admittedly is the more believable of the two, diving into the emotions of the family as they must cope with the grief of the missing Ben. Beth's reaction to her son's disappearance is superbly acted out by Michelle Pheiffer, who carries it like she's been through it in reality. The first half of the movie shows her dealing with the pain in the only way she knows how: shutting everyone else out, ignoring the optimism of life that is to be explored. This causes her to become somewhat distanced from her husband, played by Treat Williams, and her oldest son, who feels the great weight of responsibility set in when he must take care of his little sister while his parents argue.

The second half of the movie is the more emotional of the two, however, as the family, who is just beginning to enjoy life, find their son and bring him back home. There is an unmistakable truth in what occurs emotionally between the two brothers, Vincent and Ben, who goes by Sam. Vincent, who has just begun to gain the attention he never got from his parents, feels threatened by the presence of Ben, and does everything he can to make his long-lost sibling feel unwelcome. This, accompanied by the emotional baggage toted by the family in their struggle to be happy together all conspire to make the movie more heartfelt, warming and true.

Some of the best acting talent ever has gone into the making of this movie, which is heavily called for considering the amount of emotion that needs to be conveyed to the audience. Michelle Pheiffer is Beth Cappadora, and in this role, she is literally required to become her character. She does this with superb talent, playing Beth as an overall emotional person with a strong will hidden beneath her sorrows. Treat Williams makes the perfect supportive husband, as well as a father who just wants things to be like he always imagined for his family. Ben's return has a big effect on him, and when he puts his foot down about what the family does together, the acting is nothing short of amazing. Jackson does a great job in playing the older brother Vincent, as well as the wild-child teenager who gets into a lot of trouble. Whoopi Goldberg seems like a stretch as the detective working the case, but she works the camera as well with her serious demeanor.

Complexity and integrity are what make a movie worth watching, and "The Deep End of the Ocean" has all of this and more. The fact that the plot is basically two parts should not be a deference from the film; believe me, the story rolls right along. Dynamic performances and highly likeable characters also add to the film's appeal. What more can you ask for?

The Deep End of the Ocean is a drama about child/stranger abduction. The Cappadora's are a family of five living in Wisconsin. The mother, Beth (played by Michelle Phillips), is a photographer. One fall day, she and her three children Vincent (5), Ben (3), and Carrie (a few months old) take a weekend trip to Chicago to attend her class reunion. Beth and the children arrive at the hotel, where she is greeted by many past and present friends. Amongst all the chaos and excitement in the lobby, Ben was kidnapped while Vincent was supposed to be watching him. Pat, Beth's husband (played by Treet Williams), was notified and immediately went to Beth's side. Beth remained in Chicago for two months while Pat returned to Wisconsin with Vincent and Carrie. While Beth was in Chicago, she became close to a police detective named Candy Bliss (played by Whoopi Goldberg), basically living at the police station. Beth finally returned home after two months of staying in Chicago. Pat was the backbone of the family by taking care of the children and the family business while Beth fell deeper into depression. Even though she has two children that need her to love them, she can only think of Ben and how she lost him. The story moves ahead nine years. Pat opened a new restaurant in Chicago, where they moved to two years before. Beth started taking pictures again and appears to have adjusted to their life without Ben. Carrie was now nine years old and Vincent was a teenager with many behavioral problems. Life moved on until one day a boy knocked on their door asking if he could mow their yard. Beth froze in disbelief. Beth took a few pictures of him, while he mowed the yard and compared them to the pictures to the age-progression picture that the police had made of Ben. The pictures looked identical. Life turned upside-down again. The police, Beth, Pat, and Candy went to Ben's home. Ben's "father", George Karras, didn't understand what was happening because he had legally adopted Ben. Actually, he adopted Sam, Ben's new name. This plot in the story is astonishing since Beth doesn't know the identity of the abductor and George didn't realize that Ben was kidnapped. Moving Ben into the Cappadora's home is stressful on the whole family. Many conflicting emotions between Beth and Pat surface as they search for a way to reconnect with the child they had lost. Vincent and Carrie sit in the background while Beth and Pat focus on their relationship with Ben. The attention Ben gets from everyone adds stress to the already strained relationship between him and Vincent. Ben tries to stay open to the possibilities and doesn't want to close any doors. He wants to keep his relationship with George, but Beth and Pat make it virtually impossible. Ben doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings but wants happiness for himslf also. At the end of the movie, everyone seems to relax as the light at the end of the tunnel gets closer. A serene, calm atmosphere absorbs the last scene as Ben and Vincent finally connect. This story has many sides. When Beth loses Ben, the pain she felt makes your heart heavy. Any mother can only imagine how that feels. Watching it happen to someone else is painful but the thought of that happening to your own child is overwhelming. A joyful side of this movie is when Ben is found. The excitement, the wonder, and the anticipation of Sam being Ben, was a high point of the movie. He had been two blocks away for two years. A simple knock on the door changed their lives again. The section of the movie that included Sam was a little slow. Beth, Pat, and Ben (Sam) seemed to be living the same way for months with no noticeable progress. This made this movie seem to last longer than what it really needed to be. An aspect that could have made this movie more realistic is Ben's personality. He is an extremely mature twelve-year old. His reactions were too optimistic and cheerful most of the time. I think that the typical teenager in this situation would have rebelled or become more isolated. If Ben had been more confused, perhaps his reactions would have been easier to sympathize with. I didn't feel a connection with Ben. Even though he was one of the main characters, I didn't feel any kind of relationship with him. This story is divided into two sections. The first part is from the abduction through three or four months following the abduction. This part pulls on your emotions of how you would cope with the loss of your child. It's as if Ben were dead but not knowing exactly if he is or not is worse. The second half deals with the return of Ben and how the family including Ben copes with this adjustment. The twists in this half seem to fade compared to the first half. The struggles and accomplishments appear to compliment each other but without a climax. The family pushes each other away but together at the end. There's not a huge event or tragedy that brings them back together. This movie is what I would call a "chick-flick" in regards to the story following the mother's perspective. It really calls to mother's emotions. It brings the viewer to a level that is uncomfortable and to a situation that only happens to other children, not yours. "What if my child was kidnapped?" is a powerful statement. This movie makes you examine your own habits or practices and what you would do in the same situation. I left this movie realizing that I could be Beth. Even though this is only a movie, it has an underlying message about how child abduction only takes a second.

I think this movie is great. It has such a great ending and Jonathan Jackson is the greatest. The only thing that I would change is they show more of Jonathan Jackson. He is the greatest actor. Michelle Phieffer and Treat Williams were also great. I reccommend that you see this movie. I loved it so much I bought it and I rarely buy movies.

This was a fantastic movie, but keep your kleenex handy.I cried many times throughout.Ryan Merriman was great asthe kidnapped son; I willlook forward to his futureprojects. All in all, a greatflick.

One of the fringe benefits of a major format change is the inevitable markdowns of old stock of the old format. I've been taking advantage of the VHS sales in local video stores for quite a while now. Many of them are dirt cheap, and if you still have a functional VCR and don't demand all the "extras" of the DVD format, you can find all kinds of bargains.

And all kinds of dross too, unfortunately. I purchased this movie recently, along with several other films starring Michelle Pfeiffer and was contemplating holding my own personal "Pfeiffer Film Festival," but for better or for worse, I started out with DEEP END OF THE OCEAN and that pretty much nipped those plans in the bud. I wound up shelving the other entries in the Pfeiffer filmography for another rainy day. This one was just too depressing. And I don't mean the content.

I think most people recognize that Michelle Pfeiffer is a talented actress as well as being a very beautiful woman. But like many good actresses, she seems to wind up in mediocre film after mediocre film. Maybe it was ever thus. How many truly great films did a Katharine Hepburn or a Bette Davis really do in their day. And Liz Taylor did clunker after clunker in the late 60s and early 70s. But there was a significant change in recent decades. Even our biggest stars of today don't carry films the way they once did. No one goes to see a Michelle Pfeiffer film just because Michelle Pfeiffer is in it these days. The pressure is on, then, for an actor to pick vehicles worthy of his or her talents.

A number of the reviews I've seen posted here and elsewhere have elaborated on THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN's storyline, so I won't belabor that here. Suffice to say that the story of a child's kidnapping and the subsequent emotional trauma it inflicts on an entire family is a potentially powerful one. Pfeiffer heads a strong cast, including Treat Williams as her equally grieving but more resilient husband. They all have good moments and make the most of their screentime, but the story never quite gels. And it doesn't get much better when after ten years, the family is abruptly reunited with their lost son.

The fact that the reunion is highly unlikely is not so much the problem. I'm not out to revoke anyone's dramatic license here. What makes no dramatic sense or even common sense is the family's handling of the situation. In the Age of Oprah, how come no one even considers any kind of counseling for ANYONE in the family. Many people (and many entire families, of course) are resistant to seeking psychological help, but under such extraordinary circumstances, it's hard to imagine this family not even considering the option. If not for themselves, how about for the boy? After all he's been through, even the proudest of families should feel little compunction about his receiving professional help.

Like many other reviewers who have not read Jacquelyn Michaud's acclaimed novel upon which this film is based, I am guessing that this is likely one more case in which the "book was better." A novel, of course, can indulge in more leisurely pacing, and provide more background and, most importantly, can utilize techniques like interior monologue which contemporary cinema rightly eschews. (Voiceovers don't cut it--and never did). I wonder too if the book might not have provided us with some kind of explanation for the evocative title. There seems to be a trend toward a kind of emotional topography in recent fiction and cinema (not only "deep ends of the ocean" but also "maps of the world" and of "the human heart"). Apparently, they mean something. The book may make it clear. The movie doesn't really bother.

Gripping drama about a mother of 3 who has her youngest child taken from her. Ryan Merriman doesn't disappoint; wonderful actor.

Deep End of the Ocean is about a mother who goes to Chicago with her 3 young children for a class reunion. But while she is paying for a hotel room, her 3 year old, Ben, is said to have wandered away and she becomes extremely stressed. Nine years later, they moved to Chicago and Ben shows up without even knowing that that's his family. There is many twists and tuns in this movie and I really enjoyed it. You've got to see it!

Michelle Pfeiffer's excellent performance as a mother who has to deal with the heartbreak of losing a child is one of the highights of this top notch dramatic movie. When the child is found many years later one can only be torn,as she is torn, between her happiness and the happiness of the childwho doesn't remember anything about his real family. More emphasis should have been given to the boy Sam, then what was actually given, we only learn about how he feels through the words and actions of others. Ryan Merriman, who plays Sam is a very talented young actor, and given the right roles will be a name to reckon with.

This is a movie that I rented and popped into the vcr mainly for background noise. My cable was out and the video store was short on movies. I never expected to get into it like I did. Although it is true, as some viewrs have said, almost like a movie of the week plot. But...I have generally enjoyed most every movie of the week that I have seen. For sure, the little guy who played Sam stoled the show. What an incredible actor. And I have to dispute what others here have said....I think the story line is very plausable. I am not a fan of action movies at all.....now THOSE are the story lines that are completely non-plausable. Man shoots man...never goes to jail.....and so on.

This movie allows you to see both sides of Sam's situation. His relationship with the only father he remembers, and his relationship with his "new" family. I think most people can understand why he feels the way he does about his "father". I n a way, it actually gets you pulling for George and Sam to be together. I think if the situation were happening in real life, and we were all flies on the wall...we would be pulling for them to be together too. The only thing I couldn't understand was why they never tried some kind of "joint" arrangement....where he could stay with each family from time to time, mainly because they lived so close to one another. But hey...this is Hollywood.

All in all, it was a good story. The acting was great. Each and every character was played to the max. I will buy this one.