They shouldn't be too hard to spot.
Now ask that someone whether they've ever seen Deep End. The reaction you will get will either be A. "No, I've never heard of it." or B. "Oh my God, how on earth did I forget about Deep End and where on earth did you come across it!?" You see something quite interesting happened in 1970 when this film was released. Critically acclaimed upon its opening, the film garnered a significant following, tiered alongside the works of Roman Polanski. Even David Lynch, dead set against the use of colour film, went so far, in one particularly wordy interview, as to name Deep End directly as the only film that he considered acceptable in colour. It was, in every way, set to be a classic cult film of the 70s.
And then it disappeared.
Big Twist: Kevin Spacey was David Lynch the entire time.
The film completely dropped off the map, for seemingly no reason whatsoever and has only recently resurfaced with a remastered edition released in 2011 which I present for your consideration now.
That "coming of age" movies have universal appeal is so obvious that it barely needs saying. There is not a single person on this planet who didn't go through the awkward, confusing, sometimes wonderful, but mostly just really, really, awful years of puberty and sexual awakening. It is this universal experience that draws us towards films concerning this period of development. We might turn to Peter Pan or Big in our pre-teens to contextualise frightening thoughts of adulthood that we don't understand. Then American Pie and its peers drop by to help us laugh away the fear of sex. Finally, once everything settles down and we are able to start thinking about what's actually important, movies like Garden State or Dead Poets Society are there to guide us along.
You may notice that, with varying degrees of seriousness, the vast majority of these films are attempting to show the positive side of this period of our lives. These films want to show as that, even though you might feel strange and awkward, it will pass! There are bigger things on the horizon. Everything you are feeling is normal and safe. There is (and this is one of these facts that you never quite realise until confronted with it) a significant lack of films that portray just how dangerous a person can become if they pick up the wrong ideas during this period in their life.
Enter Deep End. The plot concerns a 15 year old boy, Michael, fresh out of school and starting his very first job as a swimming bath attendant in the men's changing room. Here he meets Susan, attendant in the women's, played by the gorgeous Jane Asher, who informs Michael that there is a fair amount of money to be made in tips if they occasionally swap roles: her servicing the horny men and him the randy women. While Michael isn't entirely comfortable with this, the whole thing is played as relatively harmless and, as Susan delicately puts it, they are simply "playing along with the gag".
Pictured: Harmless
However, as time goes on, Michael becomes more and more infatuated with coy and flirty Susan and as the concept of sex and relationships begins to surround him more and more, Michael's obsession starts to become dangerous. And I'll spoil no more.
The major strength of the film is its subtlety. I'm not sure I could tell you exactly the point at which Michael's obsession tips over from a naive crush to a dangerous infatuation, and Asher's performance is wonderfully low-key, simultaneously switching from mother to teacher to lover figures with a word or a sideways glance, and the dialogue itself is completely natural, never feeling scripted (which makes a lot of sense, given that the actors were encouraged to adlib throughout filming). Furthermore, the film avoids identifying any kind of moral compass point. It's hard not to feel sorry for Michael, even with his twisted view of sex, because his first encounters with the concept are so completely warped that one cannot imagine him ever growing a healthy attitude towards the subject. Similarly, Susan's promiscuity and sexiness cannot be judged entirely, as the impression is strongly given that for all her world-knowledge, she too is a little naive. The film frightens an audience, not because we don't understand what we are seeing, but because we understand it all too well. Every person, man or woman, will watch the mistakes being made in this film and will say of one of them "Perhaps I didn't go that far, but I have definitely been there."
Now, the film is in no way flawless. It appears to be set in a universe where every single person on the planet is at the peak of their sexual charge at all times, which does become a little ridiculous (though I'll let you ask your own mothers and grandmothers how true to life this was in the 70s). Also, John Moulder-Brown, who plays Michael, while nailing the naively innocent aspects of his role, is less successful when he needs to act childish, erring more on the side of an 8-year-old's tantrum than a 15-year-old's sullenness. Finally, the second act of the film is very slow. Granted, it's clearly aiming for a slow build to an incredible third act, but it overdoes it.
But the third act is worth the wait. Early screentesters apparently missed the point of Deep End's conclusion, asking the director in a Q&A why he ruined a perfectly good film in the last five minutes. The director's response? "I made the film for those last five minutes."
If you have any interest in an old film which is every bit as relevant today as it was when it was popular and that deals intelligently with sex and growth in puberty in a thoughtful, if frightening, way, then this is one for you. Not to mention, it's a great unknown classic to pull out when you want to sound like you know way more about movies than you actually do.
Not that I'm doing that. I know that I'm talking about...
Deep End comes from a different era of cinema. Today, we are flooded with movies that mean nothing and have nothing to say. That are, for lack of a better pun, shallow. Deep End is not.
That's a wrap.
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