Two Spuds and a Telly

The Deep End of the Ocean (IMDB) is a 1999 adaptation of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s novel about a three year old boy who goes missing at his mother’s high school reunion and nine years later is found living  two blocks from his biological family’s newly relocated home.

Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays the distraught and guilt riddled mother, is clearly the big name that drove this film to the theater and not, as I would argue, to its better fit in the Lifetime television forum. The Deep End of the Ocean is saturated with a made-for-tv feel and yet sheds some of the sap that hallmarks generally ooze.

The film is split into two sections: 1) mother loses son (Ben) at the Chicago high school reunion and the family suffers the emotional fallout. The film follows the parents’ anguish and resulting tumultuous marriage for a few months before 2) skipping 9 years ahead to the family’s relocation to Chicago where one day a boy rings the doorbell and asks to mow Pfeiffer’s lawn. Pfeiffer recognizes him (he matched the aging photographs the cops had printed years earlier). The boy is returned to his “original” family but struggles to match their memory of him as a 3 year old boy and the 12 year old he is now.

The film presents to viewers the balance of human relationships. Mother to son, Father to son, brother to brother, and parent to parent.

This is a Michelle Pfeiffer vehicle that ends up anchored by Cory Buck and Johnathan Jackson, the actors who play Vincent at age 7 and 16 respectively. 7 year old Vincent ends up taking care of his infant sister and fending for himself in the wake of his parents’ self destruction. At one point, overhearing his parents scream at each other, he goes into the baby’s room and makes her scream to get their attention. (more…)