The Deep End of the Ocean

Plot synopsis:
Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her husband Pat (Treat Williams) experience a parent's worst fear when their 3-year-old son Ben vanishes in a crowded hotel lobby during Beth's high school reunion. The ensuing frantic search is unsuccessful, and Beth goes through a sustained nervous breakdown. Unable to cope with her devastation, Beth unintentionally neglects her other children, Vincent (Jonathan Jackson) and Kerry (Alexa Vega).
After nine years, the family has seemingly accepted that Ben has gone forever, when a familiar-looking boy (Ryan Merriman) turns up at their house, introducing himself as Sam and offers to mow their lawn. Beth is convinced that Sam is actually her son, and begins an investigation that culminates in the discovery that Ben was kidnapped at the ill-fated high school reunion years ago, by a mentally unstable woman who was a high school classmate of Beth's. This woman brought up Ben as her own child, until she committed suicide. The attempted re-integration of Ben back into the Cappadora family produces painful results for all involved.
Eventually, the family decides that what's best for Ben is to return him to his adoptive father, and Beth returns him to his house. One night, Vincent leaves the house and Beth wakes up to a phone call at 4 in the morning to find out Vincent is in prison. Candy, Beth and Pat speak about whether Vincent's actions are taking it too far, and while Beth is entering the visitor area, she speaks to Candy whether Vincent hates her or not, and Candy reassures her he loves her. After speaking with him during visitor hours, she reveals a man's car was totaled and Vincent could've died because of what he did, which leads to the conclusion Vincent was drunk driving. They hold hands and reconcile their mother and son relationship. During the days Vincent is in prison, Beth and Pat develop relationship problems and start sleeping in separate beds, after arguing about what Pat sees of their future, Vincent and Ben, and whether he loves her or not. Another visitor appears days later and it's Sam, mostly known as Ben and he reveals that he remembered something from before his abduction, playing with Vincent and Vincent finding him, causing him to feel safe. After Pat bailing Vincent, one night Vincent finds Sam playing basketball outside. Vincent, who has carried guilt for letting go of Ben at the reunion, is forgiven by Ben who decides to return to living with his real family, but first plays a game of basketball with his brother with their parents secretly watching from their bedroom window.

Tags: boring

Review:
Michelle Pfeiffer is not only nice to look at but she plays the role of a frantic mother in search of her abducted 3-year old with great passion and at times hysteria.
Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams portray Beth and Pat Cappadora, parents of three youngsters.
However, it is the touching performances of all of the principals which transcend the television movie-of-the-week sound of the plot.Michelle Pfeiffer adds another moving performance to her gallery of roles.
Goldberg as Candy Bliss is great and Jonathan Jackson as Vincent (16 years  old) is a very talented young actor.
Towards the end the film does a good job looking at the effects the whole thing has had on the other son's character but even this lacks an emotional punch.The cast are good on paper but they seem strangely stilted.
However it doesn't aim high enough or reach the level where it is emotional or thought provoking, the end result being an interesting film that is a notch above the level of daytime TV weepy but not as worthy or moving as it wants to be..
Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) is at her high school reunion when her 3-year-old son disappears from his brother's care.
The family's pain for the first half of the film is certainly credible, though the second half almost seems like a different movie.
The deep end of the ocean (1999) is a very touching portrayal of a family of 5 who lose their 3 year old son Ben at a reunion.
the acting was really good, especially from michelle pfeiffer and jonathan jackson.
THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN **** Jacqueline Mitchard's bestselling tearjerker is incorporated into this heartfelt, emotional motion picture about losing a loved one, rising above certain challenges from which point, and finally experiencing a saving grace.
Ulu Grosbard's cast is exquisite, with Michelle Pfeiffer playing the mother of three kids who attends a high school reunion, and accidentally loses the younger son.
But the most unexpected thing happens about nine years later when a boy comes up to mow the lawn, whom the family believes is the long-lost child.
The book hit some tender notes with me, like the part where Mrs. Cappadora is explaining the loss of a child, and having to choose amongst her children she said "It's like having to choose between your mind and your heart." I expected and was hoping the movie would leave me a bit emotional, but it didn't.
Ryan Merriman, who plays the lost son Ben/Sam is also very good.But otherwise this movie seems like a made-for-TV-sleeze-thing and I can't stand the bad acting put up by the adults.
There's a lot of deep emotion in the film, especially where Vincent is concerned, that would be much better addressed in book form, where you can read his thoughts.
Based on an excellent novel, the movie does not do the book justice.I can imagine Michelle Pfeiffer as she read the novel: falling in love with it, imagining herself in the title role.
It is quite painful to witness mediocre actors like Treat Williams and Ms. Pfeiffer try their damnedest to look traumatized and devastated by the events of the story, when the result is comparable to a 7th Grade acting class.
The story was the kind of sentimental family drama one would expect on Hallmark television in the afternoon - not a big cinema movie with famous stars.By the way, I think it is not possible to place a lost-and-found kid drama in present times, because DNA technique, finger prints etc.
This is a true oxymoron,because a melodrama cannot be,by definition,realist or plausible;that's the rule of the game ,and Stahl and mainly Sirk always played fair game in the thirties and in the fifties.Charles Jarrot did exactly the same in the seventies with "the other side of midnight".Their directing was often mad(see the funeral in "imitation of life" (1959)or the execution in "the other side..."(1977) "The end of the ocean" is a tear-jerker,which has got its share of "moving " situations,but it looks like a made-for-TV "true story" -which it obviously isn't.THe movie is full of improbabilities :what a coincidence,the child ,nine years later,happens to live almost next door!And it takes Michelle Pfeiffer hardly one look to recognize her beloved offspring!And she's a photographer,she can make a picture "older",and policewoman Goldberg is here with the footprints.Best performance is given by the adoptive father who has a very dignified air.his acting is very introspective and contrasts with Pfeiffer and williams ones.The short scene in which he brings the boy's school report is very sensitive..
The Deep End of the Ocean is a feeble film that comes across as a Lifetime movie but with starrier actors.
It is a disappointment from the normally reliable director, Ulu Grosbard.Beth (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Pat Cappadora (Treat Williams) are the parents to three young children.
3 year old Ben vanishes in a hotel lobby during a school reunion.There is a frantic search assisted by a friendly detective played by Whoopi Goldberg.The incident has been draining for the family and Beth had a breakdown.
I never heard of a Jacquelyn Mitchard's book on which the movie is based but somehow something about Deep End of the Ocean has attracted my attention.
Although I don't rank this movie among my favorites I think Deep End of The Ocean is worthy of your attention and it definitely has its moments.
The story begins when we have a look at life of Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) a strong woman, who has an average, relatively successful and happy American family with three kids, but soon their life is falling apart because of an inexplicable disappearance of the youngest of their sons, three year old Ben (the other son, Vincent is seven).
While her husband Pat (Treat Williams) is trying to bring his family life back on normal tracks, Beth from the first look is suffered the most and using words of one of the characters she is "making career of being unhappy".
The story is relatively good developed and is rather sad at parts, although I believe that overall Deep End of the Ocean is not enough emotional as a movie with such subject is supposed to be.
I liked characters development in the movie except Michelle Pfeiffer's character Beth, which in my opinion is overly contradictory and complicated.
Both Jonathan Jackson and Ryan Merriman are excellent at their characters and I have to say that I particularly liked the ending of the movie.
But I want to say once again that despite these minor notes of criticism (remember that nothing is perfect) I think Deep End of The Ocean is a pretty good movie, which deserves not to be missed.
like they didn't really identify Sam before they took him, and the ending i found that the worst part, they end up playing basketball at midnight.The acting Michelle was great as usual, but she seems to make a career out of playing dysfunctional mothers, Treant was good didn't really like his character but he portrayed it well, Jonathon played the troubled teenager well making us feel for himi give it 6 out of 10.
I think the movie could have been better had there been more conversations (not necessarily with social workers, though that might have helped), where Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams, Ryan Merriman (Sam/Ben), and in some cases (for good measure) John Kapelos talked about what they were going through so everyone could come to a mutual understanding, instead of just trying to have things "happen" by themselves.
and this was one of his best.Overall, The Deep end of the Ocean, was truly a beautiful movie, that every family should watched......I give it a *thumbs-up*.
Michelle Pfeiffer played Beth Cappadora, the grieving mother, very well, but it just wasn't a very likeable character to me, even though one or two of the smaller plotlines seemed to have been left out of the movie to make it easier to sympathize with Beth.
Featuring the most interesting plot to come around in some time, `Deep End' is a involving tale of despair, loss, and family.That's not to say it isn't a very slick Hollywood film, it is, yet this production has more intriguing drama than the typical entry into this genre.
As it happens they turned out to be the only engaging parts of an otherwise forgettable film as a whole.The premise behind the movie is an extremely tense and emotional one, but the script and directing let things lag to the point where you realize that this is TV fodder.
The film's best performance comes from the underrated Treat Williams as the grieving father who remains strong to hold the family together..
Michelle Pfeiffer is Beth Cappadora, the mother of a middle class Italian family from Washington D.C. who brings her newborn daughter Kerry, three year old son Ben, and seven year old son Vincent (Cory Buck) to her 15 year high school reunion.
Then one day, Ben shows up at the Cappadora's doorstep to mow the lawn.Thus begins the ethical, moral and emotional game of twister that is "The Deep End of the Ocean."  Based on the novel of the same name by Jacquelyn Mitchard, this film tackles some very  serious and interesting issues, but fails to resolve them in a satisfying way.There are fine performances here, especially by Pfeiffer, who imbues her "Beth" with heartache and hope, and also by the impressive young Jackson, who provides needed relief from the heavy subject matter without belittling it.
There where only 3 things that kept this movie alive and those are Michelle pfeiffer, Treat Williams and some of the storyline.
Not very long into "The Deep End of the Ocean", I got the sinking feeling that the only thing that stopped this film from going straight to television was the fact that Michelle Pfeiffer starred in it.
Think "the crisis movie of the week" with a big-name actress in it, and you've got "The Deep End of the Ocean".This film has perhaps one of the worst screenplays I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing.
Michelle Pfeiffer is one of my favorite actresses, but in this movie I kept waiting for the moment when I would feel what "Beth" was all about.
Whenever Treat was on screen playing Pat, I felt like I was watching a movie instead of being part of the story.
The book manages to develop the characters of the whole family better than the film, which concentrates on Beth and Sam, but both result in a "too perfect" ending that doesn't really satisfy.I suspect that the film has a fairly strong appeal for the mature (50+) female audience...but they don't seem to be such keen movie goers.
The chief failure of the movie is in the screenplay - simply, too many stories are told in The Deep End of the Ocean.
Ulu Grosbard has established a good name with films like Straight Time (1978) and Georgia (1996), but shows a lack of sensitivity in the pacing of scenes in The Deep End of the Ocean.
This movie spent too little time being scripted - it's as if the pitch went: 'Well, we have Michelle Pfeiffer, so why bother?'  So although The Deep End of the Ocean avoids being sickly sweet, it doesn't succeed in being genuinely affecting either.
The main reason I went to see this movie was because I am a Michelle Pfeiffer fan, but I was very impressed with the film as whole.
But, once I started watching the movie I was hooked, I fell in love with the characters, and felt as though I was a part of their lives.Everyone one in this film succeeded, in showing the emotions and the steps it takes to except something so tragic, as having your son kidnapped.
This is a wonderful movie and that you should see it, it will make you cry though, so don't forget the tissues.I'm in the process of reading the book and there is a lot of stuff cut out,but I believe they got the essence and emotion from the book right on track.I thoroughly enjoyed this film and could see it many more times, twice just wasn't enough..
Deep End of the Ocean starts powerfully enough - Beth Cappadora's (Michelle Pfieffer) three year old boy Ben is abducted from the crowded lobby of hotel, during registration for her high school reunion.
Overall, this story is too even handed and calm despite the obvious potential for highly charged emotion, tension.Despite these flaws, Deep End of the Ocean is at times an absorbing story and well acted by Pfieffer.Viewers will find more bite in movies like Without a Trace (1981) and Not Without My Daughter (1991)..
In this case, I finally went to see a film before reading reviews, so that I can be surprised at plot twists."The Deep End of the Ocean" has many, many weak points, starting with an amateurish script, which only reflects the many points where the film appeared to be made on the cheap.To wit:  Michelle Pfeiffer is the only A-list star in the film.
Supporting players, all adept, include the wonderful Treat Williams, John Kapelos (in a very underappreciated role), and, for some inexplicable reason, Whoopi Goldberg in a role during which her initial appearance defuses the very emotional tension the film's trying to build, and then reveals a personal detail having absolutely nothing to do with the film.The best performance is by Jonathan Jackson, as a surly teen trying to come to grips with his new brother, who forces him to review their common past in a most uncomfortable way.Why does this film look cheap?
The only good thing was Jonathan Jackson's pretty face, or if you're a Michelle Pfeiffer fan, her's..
I read the book, "Deep End Of The Ocean" only one week before going to see the movie so it was still fresh in my mind.
This adaptation of Jacquelyn Mitchard's "The Deep End of the Ocean" only caught my attention because I could see that the lead role was played by Michelle Pfeiffer.
I obviously don't know how good the book is, but the movie is what one can refer to as a mixed blessing.Beth Cappadora and her husband, Pat are the parents of seven year old Vincent, three year old Ben, and baby Kerry.
At this point, it obviously seems like they will never see Ben again, but not long after they move into their new house, Beth meets a boy who lives in the neighbourhood and introduces himself as Sam. He looks very familiar, and it turns out that this boy, now twelve years old, really is her long-lost son, but sadly, the family reunion leads to more complications.This is clearly a film that's meant to be emotional, but I didn't feel it much until towards the end, and even then, it certainly didn't touch me the way certain other dramas have.
On the other hand, the family trouble did keep me interested, with no desire to stop the film before it was over, and the acting is decent enough I guess, though there is some weak dialogue, and the script of a movie can always affect the performances.
I admit that that the only reason I rented this movie was because I've been a huge fan of Jonathan Jackson ever since his days as Lucky on "General Hospital." To me, he has always had this great onscreen presence in whatever he does, and this movie was no exception.The movie was pretty decent, except the ending seemed a little bit unrealistic when Sam/Ben decided to go back to his biological family again.
I thought I would be totally bored with this film, but by the end, I enjoyed it, and was touched by the themes presented to us.Sure, there are problems, the screenplay was not strong in the middle act, but the story kept me interested and I could see the potential - it could've an amazing piece of work if the script was stronger.The film's plot may feature a big coincidence, some will like it, some will not, I thought it could've work better if the scenes around the big twist were longer.The acting is superb, really great.
This theatrical drama has fabulous, full-throttle performances by Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams as the parents, some interesting plot turns, but nowhere to go after the boy comes home.
It had great acting from Michelle Pfieffer and Jonathan Jackson.The storyline was good and was also original, the way the little boy got kidnapped in a split second but it became more than just a child kidnap movie when this boy arrived on the Cappadora's door step nine years later.
Pfeiffer, Goldberg, Williams, all excellent actors, as was actor playing Sam/Ben, did their best with a story that in the end defied credibility.
After this moment the film became the usual "happy end cooked in Hollywood" because there is no reason for Ben to come back to his real parents and brothers.
"The Deep End Of The Ocean" stars Treat Williams, Michelle Pfieffer, and Jonathan Jackson.
"The Deep End Of The Ocean" stars Treat Williams, Michelle Pfieffer, and Jonathan Jackson.
"The Deep End Of The Ocean" stars Treat Williams, Michelle Pfieffer, and Jonathan Jackson.
So the center of this story circles around a family at home.The film's focus being more on the mother portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, the father, Treat Williams' character, does seem to be not as detailedly described (then again, the film might extend to a saga).
Pfeiffer delivers one of his strongest, most deeply passionate performances as the emotionally torn mother of the missing child and she is complimented by Williams (his best in years), Jackson as a troublesome elder son and Goldberg, in a pivotal role as the detective who helps find the family's boy.