Appearance of 'The Deep End? raises hopes of film lovers

"The Deep End"

Directed by: Scott McGehee and David Siegel

Starring: Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic

Rated: R

The writer/director team of Scott McGehee and David Siegel have served up one of the finest examples of modern film noir to come along in quite a while.

Much as the way things happened in other films of the genre "Blood Simple" and "A Simple Plan" jump most readily to mind the events in "The Deep End" tend to spiral out of control, leading the main characters to what appears will be a devastating finale.

McGehee and Siegel have written such a taut screenplay and executed it so flawlessly as to draw the viewer in from the first frame, building the tension at a well-paced speed and all the while making us care more and more about the characters, most notably the fine Tilda Swinton in the lead role of Margaret Hall. There are no cliched gimmicks here and the pair will surely get a nomination at Oscar time for best screenplay.

Margaret is the mother of three, living near Lake Tahoe and cut off from her husband, who is away at sea most of the time. Also in the house is Margaret's father-in-law, Jack, a guy who seems impossibly wrapped up in his own world.

Although Margaret is constantly kept busy running the kids to ball games or ballet practice, we get the sense of an intense loneliness pervading her life.

As the film opens, we see Margaret visiting a gay nightclub, asking for a guy named Darby. It seems Darby, 30 years old and quite worldly, has struck up (something more than) a friendship with her 17-year-old son, Beau. Margaret makes it clear she wants the man to stay away from her boy. Slime that he is, he graciously offers to do so ... for $5,000.

Confrontation

After going back home she confronts Beau, who's on his way to getting a musical scholarship to any number of fine colleges. He tells her to butt out. The writers here have fashioned a scenario as true to life as it gets in Hollywood. There's no big blowup. The subject of homosexuality is broached but never driven into the ground, and the emotions Swinton displays as Margaret will surely hit home to any mother of a teenage son. Her performance is so perfectly re-strained, not once does she break character or betray Margaret's true soul.

Darby shows up at the Halls' that evening, and after an argument in the boathouse with Beau, he meets a fairly ugly end. From this point on, the viewers are the only folks aware of what REALLY happened here, raising the level of discomfort to Hitchcockian levels.

Margaret finds Darby the next morning and assumes the worst. Her motherly instincts take over, and she sets about to protect her family.

After Darby's body is discovered, a pair of thugs confront Margaret with what might be incriminating evidence and demand $50,000.

While it's not a sum she can readily raise, Margaret sets about the task in her efficient, used-to-dealing-with-the-kids manner and takes murder, blackmail, extortion and the rest in stride as if it was the same as picking the kids up from soccer, taking them to ballet, getting dinner ready and helping her father-in-law.

Villains

The villains here are not cut from the same cloth as the typical Hollywood heavy, and a completely unexpected turn arises, which I'll leave for the viewer to witness firsthand.

"The Deep End" is based on the novel "The Blank Wall" and an earlier film adaptation, 1949's "The Reckless Mo-ment," which starred James Mason.

While it's only touched upon briefly, some viewers may be offended by the implied sexual situations, but this is a fine, fine film in every way one that true movie lovers will not want to miss.

"The Deep End" is one of those films that I never really expected to see in this market, but it seems the folks at Wehr-enberg are trying, yet again, to bring some alternative choices to Springfield screens.

While at the show, I talked with a couple of the nice folks at the Campbell 16 Cine, who said this was merely the first in what they hope to be an ongoing series.

I see it as an experiment to find out if we're finally ready to support these smaller films. Also on tap is the excellent "Sexy Beast," reviewed in this column last week.

As I've said many times in the past, it's not enough to just complain about the lack of cinematic diversity in Spring-field; one has to be proactive. When these films come along, support them. Theater chains can't be blamed for not bringing in films that no one bothers to see when a second (or third) print of the latest blockbuster will fill the seats.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)