The Deep End Of The Ocean

Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams Director: Ulu Grosbard Original UK Premiere: 1999 Dvd Release: 21st February, 2000 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Region 2 Encoding

Article Index: [Background Info] [DVD Review] [Biographies] [Articles/Resources] [Link To This Article] Looking To Buy? Buy This DVD Here

The Deep End of the Ocean is the title of a 1999 film about an American middle class, suburbia family that is torn apart when the youngest son is kidnapped & raised by a mentally ill woman, until he appears at the frontdoor step of his real mother & asks if he can mow the lawn. The film is based on a 1996 best-selling novel of the same name written by Jacquelyn Mitchard. The film is rated PG-13 for some profanity & drama. Wisconsin photographer & housewife Beth Cappadora leaves her youngest son, named Ben alone with his older brother for a brief moment at a Chicago hotel, while attending her high school reunion. The oldest son lets go & Ben vanishes without a trace. Beth goes into an extended mental breakdown & it is left to her husaband & owner of a resturant Pat to force his wife to robotically care for their remaining two children; 7-year-old Vincent & infant daughter Kerry. Nine years pass & the Cappadoras family is still together & have moved to Chicago & on the outside seems to have gotten over their grief.

Beth Cappadora is at her high school reunion when her three-year-old son disappears from his brothers care. The little boy never turns up, & the family has to deal with the devastating guilt & grief that goes along with it. Nine years later, the family has relocated to Chicago. By a sheer fluke, the kid turns up, living no more than two blocks away. The authorities swoop down & return the kid to his biological parents, but things are far from being that simple. The boy grew up around what he has called his father, while his new family are strangers to him; the older son, now a teenager, has brushes with the law & behavioural problems. His adjustment to his lost brother is complicated by normal teenage churlishness, & the dad seems to expect everything to fall into place as though the family had been intact all along. Its a tightrope routine for actors in a story like this, being careful not to chew the scenery while at the same time not being too flaccid or understated. For the most part, the members of the cast deal well with the emotional complexity of their roles. Though the story stretches credulity, weirder things do happen in the real world. The familys pain for the first half of the film is certainly credible, though the second half almost seems like a different movie. Whoopi Goldberg plays the detective assigned to the case; casting her is a bit of a stretch, but she makes it work. All in all, a decent three-hanky movie in the vein of Ordinary People.

Michelle Pfeiffer is an American actress & singer. Born in Santa Ana, Orange County, California to Dick & Donna Pfeiffer, she has three siblings, an older brother & two younger sisters. In 1981, she married actor Peter Horton, but they later divorced. In 1993, Pfeiffer adopted a girl; later that year, she married producer David E Kelley, the creator of the Chicago Hope & Ally McBeal television series; a son was born in 1994. Her first starring role was in the 1982 musical Grease 2. Legend of the Seven Seas, What Lies Beneath, White Oleander & I Am Sam. As a singer, she became most widely known with her role in The Fabulous Baker Boys. Her sister Dedee Pfeiffer is also an actress. Charlie Chan & the Curse of the Dragon Queen. Posters Of Michelle Pfeiffer

Editors Choice: I Am Sam, What Lies Beneath, The Story Of Us, The Deep End Of The Ocean, William Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream, A Thousand Acres, One Fine Day, The Fabulous Baker Boys, View DVDology

©2004-2008 DVDArk.co.uk