The Deep End of the Ocean

Based on the 1996 novel written by Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Deep End of the Ocean starts off strong but closes with a whimper and a wheeze.

Set in 1988, Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) takes her three young children to a 15th year high school reunion at a Chicago hotel. In all of the hustle and bustle, Beth tells her oldest son Vincent to hold the hand of his three year old brother, Ben. When Beth returns from the registration desk, she finds that Ben has disappeared.

In what must be a mother’s worst nightmare, the police, led by Detective Candi Bliss (Whoopi Goldberg), are brought in. Beth’s husband, restaurateur Pat Cappadora (Treat Williams), joins the search but Ben is never found.

The movie goes forward for several months. Returning back home to Madison, Wisconsin, Beth is an emotional wreck lying in bed during much of the day while Pat puts on a happy face to keep things together.

Nine years later, the family moves to Chicago where Pat has opens an Italian restaurant and Beth resumes a career as a photographer. One day, a kid named Sam turns up at the front door, offering to mow the family’s lawn.

Beth immediately recognizes Sam as Ben. He lives with his widowed father two blocks away. Fingerprints match Sam with Ben. It turns out that Beth’s psychotic classmate kidnapped Ben at the reunion, took him to Minnesota, remarried, moved to Chicago, and committed suicide. Whether in print or on screen, that’s one plot twist too many for me.

The remainder of the movie deals with Ben’s adjustment to his blood family.

The performances in this movie are rather shallow and unconvincing, particularly by Williams. Pfeiffer holds up her end, but there’s one obvious shortfall. When I misplaced my checkbook the other day, what little hair I have stood up on end. Michelle Pfeiffer comes out a traumatic nine year ordeal with nary a gray hair; in fact, she winds up looking like a pert Michelle Pfeiffer. Compare that to Meryl Streep as the cancer victim in One True Thing and you’ll conclude that there is no comparison between the quality of the performances.