The Deep End

There is a decidedly neo-Hitchcockian bent to this tension-packed, daylight-noir suspense thriller that stars idiosyncratic indie empress Tilda Swinton as a Lake Tahoe soccer mom attempting to cover up the death of her gay son's oily older lover. When she finds the man's body near their lakefront boathouse with an anchor buried in his chest, she jumps to the wrong conclusion, dumps the corpse in a cove and before long has to face down a blackmailer demanding $50,000 for a videotape of her son in bed with the dead guy. Significant parts of the plot just don't hold water, but Swinton successfully sells her motherly motivation as well as the fact that, in a panic, she makes big mistakes. As she flits around nervously on the screen, considering how far she's willing to go in this cover-up, the viewer viscerally feels her agitation. If it weren't for the recurring common sense and police investigation loopholes, there would be little to distract from the film's chilling atmosphere. A strong optional purchase. (R. Blackwelder)