Alexa Vega, Brenda Strong, John Kapelos

Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) is at her high school reunion when her 3-year-old son disappears from his brother's care. The little boy never turns up, and the family has to deal with the devastat...( read more  read more... )ing guilt and grief that goes along with it. Nine years later, the family has relocated to Chicago. By a sheer fluke, the kid turns up, living no more than two blocks away. The authorities swoop down and return the kid to his biological parents, but things are far from being that simple. The boy grew up around what he has called his father, while his new family are strangers to him; the older son, now a teenager, has brushes with the law and behavioral problems. His adjustment to his lost brother is complicated by normal teenage churlishness, and the dad (Treat Williams) seems to expect everything to fall into place as though the family had been intact all along. It's a tightrope routine for actors in a story like this, being careful not to chew the scenery while at the same time not being too flaccid or understated. For the most part, the members of the cast deal well with the emotional complexity of their roles. Though the story stretches credulity, weirder things do happen in the real world. The family's pain for the first half of the film is certainly credible, though the second half almost seems like a different movie. Whoopi Goldberg plays the detective assigned to the case; casting her is a bit of a stretch, but she makes it work. All in all, a decent three-hanky movie in the vein of Ordinary People. --Jerry Renshaw

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65% liked it

16,549 ratings

Critics

42% liked it

31 critics

PG-13, 109 min.

Directed by: Ulu Grosbard

Release Date: March 12, 1999

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DVD Release Date: March 6, 2001

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Flixster Reviews (560)


  • August 11, 2007
    Moving story about a family who's son disappears but thye find him years later. Brilliant performance by Michelle.
  • January 28, 2007
    Pretty good movie one..the girls will love.
  • January 5, 2007
    TV movie fare. Not bad, but nothing more than average.
  • November 7, 2006
    Michelle did a great job in this.
  • October 18, 2006
    not as good as i thought it would be. I think the story could've been deeper.
  • August 12, 2009
    A sweet but sad story of a mother who is determined to find her missing son. She finds him years later and has to how deal with her other son with the return of her missing son.
  • August 8, 2009
    For a parent, losing a child is the unthinkable. Nothing can assuage the guilt or the void.

    The only way a parent can cope is to survive day-by-day and use distractions to keep the buried memories from welling up and drowning him or her.

    It is bad enough when a child is killed,...( read more) but what if the child disappears, is kidnapped, stolen? The uncertainty, the not knowing if that child is alive or dead, can be so overwhelming that a parent can cease to function as a parent and merely exist. Like the child, the parent disappears, but it is into the self.
    "The Deep End of the Ocean" is intelligent, adult drama.
  • July 13, 2009
    All is well in the end, but the things you are going through are things that you don't want to imagine. I cried a lot here, back then.
  • May 26, 2009
    esta me hizo llorar!
  • May 1, 2009
    I absolutley loved this movie it shows the raw emotion a mother feels for her child and the lengths she would go to get them back. It was so sad but abduction happens so much that many people should watch this film.

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The Deep End of the Ocean Trivia


  • who was in batman returns,the deep end of the ocean,and up close and personal  Answer »
  • in the movie, deep end of the ocean, how did the mom find her son?  Answer »
  • WHO PLAYED THE MOM IN THE MOVIE"THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN" WHERE HER YOUNGEST SON WENT MISSING DURING A HIGH SCHOOL REUNION ?  Answer »
  • What was the name of the person who played Beth Cappadora in 'The Deep End Of The Ocean?  Answer »

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