| 100 |
Washington Post
An extraordinarily riveting drama.
|
| 100 |
Los Angeles Times
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.
|
| 90 |
New Times (L.A.)
An exciting, sharply realized melodramatic film noir, based on Elizabeth Sanxay Holding's novel "The Blank Wall."
|
| 90 |
Wall Street Journal
A thriller with a quietly sensational performance by Tilda Swinton.
|
| 90 |
The New York Times
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.
|
| 90 |
Time
Elegantly made, romantically doomy, curiously affecting movie.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
The real story lies beneath the surface of this superbly acted, strangely moving film.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
It's intense and involving, and it doesn't let us go.
|
| 88 |
Boston Globe
A perfect example of a small, well-made, and (in its central role) rivetingly acted film.
|
| 88 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Remains rooted in the real world, which makes its story all the more satisfying -- and chilling.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
The Deep End doesn't have a knotty message, but it's a much more meaningful picture than "Suture."
|
| 80 |
Variety
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.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
A fetchingly improbable match of material and directors.
|
| 80 |
Mr. Showbiz
Goran Visnjic is such a sensitive, non-menacing gentleman that any woman would want him as her own personal blackmailer.
|
| 80 |
Rolling Stone
Springs surprises that entertain and provoke.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
Swinton is heartbreaking. She's not just craft; she's high art.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Swinton single-handedly carries The Deep End past its nagging ambiguities.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
Delicious, intelligent thriller.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
An intelligent, extremely well-acted thriller about a mother's endless love for her son.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
The resulting film is nobly ridiculous and ridiculously noble, doing everything in its power to subvert the dross it's fooling around with.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Swinton provides her own brand of incandescence, doubling as the film's aching heart and its center of gravity.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
Watchable enough on its own terms.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Ultimately successful at what it sets out to do, even if it's not as much fun along the way as the original.
|
| 67 |
Entertainment Weekly
Displays a promise it doesn't, in the end, live up to. See it for Swinton's embodiment of unadulterated maternal will.
|
| 50 |
Slate
Swinton is good enough to take your mind off the not-too-compelling ambiguities.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
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.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
The same story was told vastly better in the 1949 melodrama "The Reckless Moment."
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