The Deep End has been hyped as a stylishly-crafted suspense-thriller - and imagine my delight when it actually was all that and more. You see, only a few nights prior I watched a similarly hyped film entitled Swimming Pool that offered all of the thrills and suspense of a documentary on grub worms. So little happened in that (well-acted) but laughably inept thriller that writing a review for it without letting slip a spoiler was child splay. All I had to mention was that the film was just fine until something improbably stupid happened toward the end, which caused everyone to begin doing uncharacteristic things and it ended with some sort of Fellini-esque pretense.

The Deep End, on the other hand, shall be very difficult to rave about without giving away key plot points. As I look back upon the film as a whole, I can see that it has a very Shakespearean structure in terms of plot and as a morality tale. Tilda Swinton (the bossy redhead from The Beach) plays the protagonist heroine in this film - doing so with strength and vulnerability and such utter perfection every step of the way (to the point that made me wonder if Julia Roberts Oscar for Erin Brockovich was truly deserved.)

Her husband (in classic Shakespearean mode) is off at sea, and thus offers Swinton no help extricating her family from a disturbing and dire predicament as poetic as anything the Bard has dreamed up. In fact, we are off-handedly given the impression that her husband would have been the sort of man who would have overreacted to the circumstances and been wholly unable to do the necessary things (however unpleasant and illegal) to, not only protect her family, but also preserve their way of life. Out of her love for her family, particularly her son Beau (Jonathan Tucker, whose shocking misdeeds have placed the family at such mortal risk) she does whatever it takes, all the while keeping up the guise of the on-the-go soccer mom.

The Deep End doesn't mumbly-dick around setting up the action--we are right away thrust into the middle of it, and the tone of the film remains taut throughout. While it is the police whom you expect to start poking their nose around the family's stunning Lake Tahoe beach house, (to investigate the accidental death of Josh Lucas) instead a couple of blackmailing con-men are the first to make their play. They possess a video-tape with graphic and damning evidence and they are willing to destroy it, without the police finding out about it for a price. Not an outlandishly unreasonable price, but one Swinton is unable to raise without the co-signature of her husband who is not only away, but geographically incommunicado.

The man who plays the contact for the Blackmailers is Goran Visnjic (E.R.) who is by no means trying to be menacing - he's a decent fellow merely carrying out the plan of his partner who is the true Shakespearean villain. As the hour of the planned money drop comes and goes, Visnjic decides to pay Swinton a call at the house. His arrival at the beach house just so happens to coincide with an unrelated crisis that finds Swinton's live-in father-in-law collapsed and in the throes of a heart-attack. Before you can say (interesting plot twist) the two adversaries are at once side-by-side on the floor desperately working together to resuscitate the old man.

This they accomplish and in so doing develop a bond and undeniable kinship if not attraction that changes the direction of the caper. Which adds one of those great X-factor dimensions to the plot that elevates it even further. To be honest, I'm loathe to give away anymore of this story, there's plenty I haven't told you and much juicy stuff to follow. The Deep End is a suspense-thriller of the best kind, you're hooked from the word go, you care deeply about all of the characters, and it features a (fall-in-love-with-her) performance by Swinton.

Other than one scene toward the end that gets a little sloppy (particularly when contrasted with the clean and precise execution of the rest of the film) the writing is clever and strong. Never once do you find yourself doubting or second-guessing the actions or motives of any of the characters. And again this one grabs you by the stomach right off the bat and you'll be at it's mercy until the credits roll.