The Deep End 2001

Critics score:
82 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: Sucks us into its vortex of sex, lies and videotape and refuses to let go -- at least for the first hour or so. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: For all its genre trappings, this is an intelligent, probing study of an ordinary woman under extraordinary duress. Read more

Ebert & Roeper: Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The Deep End does what too few films even attempt -- it takes an ordinary life and places it in an extraordinary situation just believable enough to be terrifying. Read more

Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News: Swinton mesmerizes as the desperate mother of three under siege. Read more

Houston Chronicle: The film ultimately fails, either because the premise is too absurd, or the execution isn't absurd enough. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: If the captivating turns and stellar acting of The Deep End don't carry you away, the incredible water imagery surely will. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: For the most part ... the filmmakers and performers invest a high level of intelligence and sympathy into The Deep End. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: Fastidious and smart. Read more

John Zebrowski, Seattle Times: Even when The Deep End takes an unfortunate turn toward convention, Swinton is still there, pulling us along. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Has a cool, glassy appeal -- but then, so does a fish tank. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Exquisitely made with a mesmerizing sense of style, it shows the wonderful things that can happen when traditional material is both handled with care and adroitly updated. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: The Deep End is the year's best movie since Memento. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: See it for Swinton's embodiment of unadulterated maternal will. Read more

Kevin Courrier, Globe and Mail: An intelligently suspenseful and incongruously witty chamber drama. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Swinton ... is for once deglamorized into an ordinary woman enlarged by extraordinary circumstances, and the role animates her wonderfully. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's the powerful chemistry between the crudely handsome Goran Visnjic ... and the extraordinary Tilda Swinton ... that makes the film relentlessly captivating. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: An exceptionally involving and intelligent thriller. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's intense and involving, and it doesn't let us go. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: A thrummingly satisfying '40s-style women's melodrama cleverly disguised as an art-house picture. Read more

Wesley Morris, San Francisco Chronicle: Its self-awareness is never less than jarring -- trash too high-minded to come out and indulge itself. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: Elegantly made, romantically doomy, curiously affecting. Read more

Time Out: Read more

USA Today: One of the most invigorating experiences of the summer. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice: Swinton provides her own brand of incandescence, doubling as the film's aching heart and its center of gravity. Read more