Austin Cartwright This is an original and well-written story — unlike most movies, which have predictable and time-worn story lines. It's about real people with real emotions, decent people trying to deal with difficult situations.I liked the characters. I liked the realistic way they dealt with the situations. And there wasn't any overacting, like you see so often in movies. People didn't go around screaming or otherwise overdramatizing, and yet their feelings were apparent. It was well acted by all.Most parents consider their children to be their possessions. Some parents have no regard for their children's feelings. Only a parent who really loves his or her child thinks of the child's happiness and best interests above all else. This picture recognizes this fact.This is an excellent movie. I really enjoyed it.

bella_vanitas It's every mother's nightmare: When Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) turns her back for a second, her 3-year-old son, Ben, is abducted from her high school reunion. The search doesn't yield any results. And so, the family has to deal with this sudden loss: Beth develops a serious case of depression, her husband, Pat (Treat Williams), tries to hide his grief and move forward, and their oldest son, Vince (Jonathan Jackson), has to deal with both his guilt (he was supposed to be watching his brother) and the lack of attention from his parents.Almost a decade later, the family moves to a new neighborhood. A boy comes by and asks if he can mow their lawn – and instantly, Beth recognizes her son, Ben. Will the family be reunited after nine years? And is it even possible to make up for the lost time? The Deep End of the Ocean has quite a few things going for it: a solid cast and, more importantly, an intriguing premise. What a pity that it doesn't make more of it.The most glaring problem is that the makers aren't sure what kind of story they want to tell. Is this a movie about the loss of a son? Is it about a family's reunion or about the problems afterwards? Or is it about the impossibility of changing the past? Instead of choosing, the movie tries to tell a variety of different stories, and that doesn't quite work out. In the end, the different parts seem too disjointed.A second problem is the partially incomprehensible motivations of the characters. In one case in particular, this is due to a bad child actor. Ben's (Ryan Merriman) displayed emotions don't seem to fit his actions even once.The Deep End of the Ocean could have been a pretty good Lifetime movie. Instead, it was turned into a below-average motion picture.Written by: Johanna Schoenfeldhttp://thecelebritycafe.com/movies/full_review/12945.html

George Attwood 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. A search for the little guy wasn't over for weeks upon weeks, until our family had to face facts that he wasn't coming home. 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. Treat Williams is great as the man-to-lean-on husband who wants to do the right thing. Whoopi Goldberg adds a nice touch as Detective Bliss. Amid its interesting theme, the character dynamic stands out - from how the players respond to each other through the horrific circumstance, to mutually reaching a place of forgiveness and comfort, with each other and in themselves. One of the more rewarding films I've seen lately.

bob the moo Beth Cappadora is at a reunion in a hotel when her middle child of three goes missing. At first the search is informal but it grows increasingly frantic and official as they realise that Ben has been taken by somebody. The family never fully recovers and carry the scars for years. Nine years later the family have moved to Chicago to start a new life. When Beth has a local boy come to the block to cut the grass, she believes that he must be Ben because her looks just like him despite the age. The police recover Ben but is it fair to take him away from the people Ben now considers his family?The plot summary gives the impression that this is just a standard weepy that would easily screen on a weekday afternoon. However the presence of a couple of well known names in the cast list suggests that this film will give the subject a more serious approach that acts more as drama than weepy. Partly the latter is true but not 100%, and the film is still essentially a sort of weepy that has a control of it's emotions and is actually quite stable but not to the point where it is an engaging debate.The material should be thought provoking but it isn't really. What I thought would be the main thrust of the film was really just mentioned in the final 20 minutes and it was not only obvious that it was coming but it was quite logically dealt with without real emotion - this is not a `Sophie's Choice' situation but something quite lacking. The start of the film is OK but it deals with the loss too easily and I never got overwhelmed with the emotions the family must feel. 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. Pfeiffer is a good actress who sadly doesn't seem to get as much good work as she gets older. Here she tries hard but can't get across what her character must be feeling inside. Williams is an OK support for her and does OK. Jackson is quite good and his character became more interesting to me than the return of Ben itself. Goldberg hangs around but attempts to give her a character through one line of dialogue about her sexuality and security in her job are so out of the blue that I was left wondering where it came from.Overall this is not a weepy because it aims higher than that and doesn't wrench all the emotion out of every scene to get the audience. 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.