Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Deep End, The

EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Deep End, The reviews
78
6.7 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 27 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (story The Blank Wall)
Scott McGehee
David Siegel

Directed by: Scott McGehee
David Siegel

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 8, 2001
DVD: April 16, 2002

Running Time: 99 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for some violence and language, and for a strong sex scene

Starring Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan Tucker, Peter Donat, Josh Lucas, and Raymond J. Barry

A story of a mother's relationship with her son as she struggles desperately to cope with a crisis that threatens to envelop her entire world. In the classical tradition of the American film melodrama, The Deep End explores the depths of familial love, the boundaries of communication, and the quiet lonely beauty of self-sacrifice. (i5 Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

An extraordinarily riveting drama.

Read Full Review >
100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Exquisitely made with a mesmerizing sense of style, it shows the wonderful things that can happen when traditional material is both handled with care and adroitly updated.

Read Full Review >
90

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

An exciting, sharply realized melodramatic film noir, based on Elizabeth Sanxay Holding's novel "The Blank Wall."

Read Full Review >
90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A thriller with a quietly sensational performance by Tilda Swinton.

90

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Fastidious and smart, and Ms. Swinton's fixated intensity isn't ever remote; we're always aware of how deeply she's feeling. Her work is magnificent.

Read Full Review >
90

Time Richard Schickel

Elegantly made, romantically doomy, curiously affecting movie.

Read Full Review >
90

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The real story lies beneath the surface of this superbly acted, strangely moving film.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's intense and involving, and it doesn't let us go.

Read Full Review >
88

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A perfect example of a small, well-made, and (in its central role) rivetingly acted film.

88

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Remains rooted in the real world, which makes its story all the more satisfying -- and chilling.

Read Full Review >
80

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The Deep End doesn't have a knotty message, but it's a much more meaningful picture than "Suture."

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Todd McCarthy

Taking film noir material and turning it inside out visually and morally, The Deep End is an absorbing, beautifully made melodrama that succeeds on formal levels more than it does with suspense or emotion.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

A fetchingly improbable match of material and directors.

Read Full Review >
80

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Goran Visnjic is such a sensitive, non-menacing gentleman that any woman would want him as her own personal blackmailer.

80

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Springs surprises that entertain and provoke.

Read Full Review >
78

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Swinton is heartbreaking. She's not just craft; she's high art.

Read Full Review >
75

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Swinton single-handedly carries The Deep End past its nagging ambiguities.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Delicious, intelligent thriller.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An intelligent, extremely well-acted thriller about a mother's endless love for her son.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris

The resulting film is nobly ridiculous and ridiculously noble, doing everything in its power to subvert the dross it's fooling around with.

Read Full Review >
70

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Swinton provides her own brand of incandescence, doubling as the film's aching heart and its center of gravity.

Read Full Review >
70

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Watchable enough on its own terms.

Read Full Review >
67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Ultimately successful at what it sets out to do, even if it's not as much fun along the way as the original.

Read Full Review >
67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Displays a promise it doesn't, in the end, live up to. See it for Swinton's embodiment of unadulterated maternal will.

Read Full Review >
50

Slate David Edelstein

Swinton is good enough to take your mind off the not-too-compelling ambiguities.

Read Full Review >
50

TV Guide Ken Fox

Swinton lends Margaret an air of grace under pressure, and fleshing out feelings of domestic dissatisfaction -- a key element that otherwise remains buried in the subtext.

Read Full Review >
50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The same story was told vastly better in the 1949 melodrama "The Reckless Moment."

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John B. gave it an8:
Should have had more of a gay subplot. Too stereotypical homophobic.

Gregory L. gave it a 10:
No film in memory has so deftly and deeply examined a mother-son relationship. Even better, Tilda Swinton and Goran Visnjic show the possibilities, and the costs, of moral dialogue. A great movie.

Ben S. gave it a 7:
I enjoyed Swinton very much, and Visnijic was darkly appealing. The true bad guy in the film wasn't really that menacing, though, and the story gets caught in ambiguities that tend to cause one to wonder where the story is really going. A good film for taking it easy on a Saturday night, all in all, thought you might want a cup of java at your side for the slow parts, which there are a lot of.

Alan M. gave it a 10:
Brilliant film for intelligent adults.

Don D. gave it a 9:
Tilda Swinton give a speech about trying harder which should be memorized by everyone. An excellent thriller with a heart of platinum.

Ryan M. gave it a 4:
It's interesting for a while, but then it drifts off to the point that, well, you just don't care anymore.

P. L. gave it a 1:
Over-rated. Over-dramatic. CRAP-OLA.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use