By AMBER FURST
amber@du2.byu.edu
'The Deep End of the Ocean' is a film that deals with emotional topics, but does not go deep enough into the lives of the characters to make the audience care.
Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes to her high school reunion and loses her 3-year-old son Ben in a hotel lobby. Nine years later Ben shows up at the door of the Capadora's as a neighbor child who has no memory of his first family.
The first half of the movie deals with the loss of a child, and the second half deals with readjusting to Ben's returning to live with the family.
Perhaps if you have read the book by Jacquelyn Mitchard you will be able to follow the time lapse and the motivation for the characters' actions. I did not.
I was told by people that the book was excellent and gave insight into several characters and not just Beth's. However, this was lost in the film version.
Beth is the central focus of the film and the other two children in the family are ignored. This is interesting because I was told that the older child, Vincent (Jonathan Jackson), was an important key to the story.
The issues that the family are faced with are heart wrenching, but after the first hour, I was tired of seeing Beth look as if she was about to cry and neglect her family.
Perhaps her reaction of becoming self-consumed was realistic, but the filmmakers could have showed how all this affected the rest of the family.
This is a unique story, and as I have never heard of anything like it happening, it is hard to judge what is right or wrong in how the characters react.
Vincent, the older brother is reluctant to get to know his newly returned brother. Perhaps he thinks losing Ben was his fault or perhaps he fears Ben might disappear again after he gets to know him.
Whatever the reason, the film does not ponder long on Vincent's pain, which turns out to be an important part of the film.
I heard a lot of hype about Jackson, a young actor known for his General Hospital work, but I was not familiar with who he was. He was indeed talented and I wish I could have seen more of his troubled older brother.
Whoopie Goldberg, as the investigator helping the family find Ben, offers some comic relief to the heavy topics of the film.
This film was obviously meant to show off Pfeiffer as she is the main focus of everything. There is a reason she is so well known in the film world. She did a very good job as Beth and occasionally got the audience to feel sorry for her.