Margaret
Hall (Tilda Swinton) has her hands full all day long. With her
husband regularly away for Navy duty and three kids to take care
of, Margaret must handle every family happening on a daily
basis. On top of all of this, she has to deal with the more
pressing issue of her eldest son Beau's homosexuality. Her
struggle is not really with the fact that he is gay, but rather
with the idea that Beau, being under-aged, is seeing Darby, a
man almost twice his age. Not only that, but Beau's beau is an
alcoholic. Fearing for her son's safety, Margaret begs Darby to
leave her son alone and even offers money for this to happen.
Of course, Darby greedily accepts the money, but still sneaks
behind her back to meet Beau. That is until one night when the
lovers meet and things turn for the worse. Darby drives out to
Beau's lakeside house, and the two slink out to the back. They
get into a quarrel and Beau runs back to the house. Margaret
sees him and knows that something is up. It is not until the
next morning that Margaret discovers the seriousness of the
situation, when she discovers Darby's lifeless body on the
shore.
Worried that her son might be accused of murder, Margaret takes
the situation into her own hands. Soon enough, things get
totally out of control as the police discover the body, Margaret
becomes the target of a vicious blackmail, and laundry is piling
up.
"The Deep End" is a suspenseful drama indeed. Here's
this housewife who gets involved in covering up a crime that her
son may or may not have committed, and she doesn't exactly know
what to do. Margaret is an ordinary woman in an extraordinary
circumstance. She pretends that everything is alright for the
sake of her family, but we know it is anything but that. With
her problems, it is a wonder that she can still keep her
daughter's ballet engagement and what not.
"The Deep End" starts out really strong and taut, but
sort of gets disjointed in the second half. The plot had too
many convenient escape routes; like the incident with the
grandfather (talk about time precision) and the blackmail
collector. Things just started to fit a bit too snuggly as the
film went on.
Nevertheless, Tilda Swinton is simply amazing as Margaret Hall.
Rarely is a movie anchored to such gripping realism due to a
single performance, yet "The Deep End" has Swinton to
pull it off. Come Oscar nomination time, I wouldn't be surprised
if her name will be one of the five women announced to compete
for Best Actress. What she does in "The Deep End" is
crucial for she adds believability to the entire film. Her
performance is not over the top, bordering lunacy, and Swinton
always hits the right notes. Her apprehension becomes ours and
we share her struggles. Margaret might have sheltered her family
from the real going-ons, but look deep into her eyes and you can
tell something is not right.
"The Deep End" ventures into a suspenseful tale of
cover-ups and deception, and although it gets a bit shaky at
times, a first rate performance from Swinton prevents it from
sinking altogether.
