Am I Missing Something?

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The Deep End of the Ocean (1999): Dir: Ulu Grosbard / Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Jonathan Jackson, Alexa Vega: Drama that inquires how far one would go to obtain information or achieve goals. Michelle Pfeiffer plays a mother who turns her back for only a second only to be confronted with the reality that one of her children is missing. Nine years later she hasn't gotten over it but still continues her job as a photographer. One day her daughter arrives home with a friend to mow the lawn. Pfeiffer is stunned at his resemblance to her missing son. After taking snapshots she involves police resulting in a disturbing film where no one can ultimately win. There is an intriguing twist in the conclusion that ties everything together. Directed by Ulu Grosbard who previously made Georgia. Fine performances by Pfeiffer who suffers for a mistake but will go at lengths to correct it. Treat Williams as her husband is cardboard and basically there to tell Pfeiffer to give up. Whoopi Goldberg has the thankless role as a gay detective with misguided humour. Jonathan Jackson plays the now older son who remembers nothing but is overwhelmed by this sudden life that he cannot reflect. Alexa Vega plays the younger sister who avoids being missing. Depressing film with a strong message about protecting children from society's deep end. Score: 7 / 10

A kid of three years old is kidnapped; he will be retrieved after nine years. All of them will face difficult challenges, the parents, the boy, the adoptive father (who was rising the kid in good faith, without being aware of what had happened long time ago). The movie is based on the best-seller of Jacquelyn Mitchard. I didn't have the chance to read the book; some say it is superior to the movie (which would not come as a surprise). What impressed me was the outcome of the story, treated with great sensibility and poignancy.It called in my mind another movie, 'An American Rhapsody', as both of them offer somehow the same solution. The best decision can be taken only by the kid, if they let him find the answers in his own terms. And his decision will be of unexpected maturity: he will realize his importance and his responsibilities for the well being of the whole family.

There's no doubt that this movie brings forth feelings of sympathy from anyone who watches it. You feel sorry for everyone: for Pat and Beth, whose 3 year old son is kidnapped; for Vincent, who loses his brother; for Carrie, who never knew her brother; for Sam/Ben, who was kidnapped and lost all memory of his birth family and ends up being torn away from everything he knows; for George, who unknowingly adopts Sam/Ben as his son and then loses him. Everyone in this is a sympathetic character. So, the movie pulls the heartstrings well, but in the end offered very little depth to either the subject matter or the characters. It came across to me as superficial - it introduces the issue but only scratches the surface. Maybe that's inevitable in a movie dealing with such a difficult subject, or maybe it was just the result of a poorly constructed movie that tried to give us a sense of everyone's feelings, when it might have been more powerful had it focused on just one of the characters, and how they reacted to this insane situation. Then, it makes the biggest mistake it could have made - going for the happy, sappy ending, which was just too easy. Yes, there was a sense of uncertainty to the ending, as Sam/Ben admits to Vincent that he doesn't know if his decision to move back with the Cappadoras is "permanent," but it still seemed too fairy-tale to me.The opening of the movie works. It draws you in as you share the growing sense of panic after Ben goes missing. Unfortunately, the plot ends up being driven by a device that's just too contrived - Sam/Ben and his adoptive father living just two blocks away from the house the Cappadoras move to in Chicago, and Beth recognizing him when he shows up offering to cut their grass. I also found Whoopi Goldberg's character of Det. Candy Bliss distracting and unnecessary - and why would anyone care that she was a lesbian? That revelation came out of the blue and served no purpose whatsoever. That does, however, serve as a good illustration of another overall problem with this. Some of the script seemed poorly thought out and had little purpose: either either too cliché for the situation or extraneous to the story. The basics of the story are interesting enough to keep the viewer watching, but as a two-hour drama, it's really not that well constructed.

Beth Cappadora is at a reunion in a hotel when her middle child of three goes missing. At first the search is informal but it grows increasingly frantic and official as they realise that Ben has been taken by somebody. The family never fully recovers and carry the scars for years. Nine years later the family have moved to Chicago to start a new life. When Beth has a local boy come to the block to cut the grass, she believes that he must be Ben because her looks just like him despite the age. The police recover Ben but is it fair to take him away from the people Ben now considers his family?The plot summary gives the impression that this is just a standard weepy that would easily screen on a weekday afternoon. However the presence of a couple of well known names in the cast list suggests that this film will give the subject a more serious approach that acts more as drama than weepy. Partly the latter is true but not 100%, and the film is still essentially a sort of weepy that has a control of it's emotions and is actually quite stable but not to the point where it is an engaging debate.The material should be thought provoking but it isn't really. What I thought would be the main thrust of the film was really just mentioned in the final 20 minutes and it was not only obvious that it was coming but it was quite logically dealt with without real emotion - this is not a `Sophie's Choice' situation but something quite lacking. The start of the film is OK but it deals with the loss too easily and I never got overwhelmed with the emotions the family must feel. Towards the end the film does a good job looking at the effects the whole thing has had on the other son's character but even this lacks an emotional punch.The cast are good on paper but they seem strangely stilted. Pfeiffer is a good actress who sadly doesn't seem to get as much good work as she gets older. Here she tries hard but can't get across what her character must be feeling inside. Williams is an OK support for her and does OK. Jackson is quite good and his character became more interesting to me than the return of Ben itself. Goldberg hangs around but attempts to give her a character through one line of dialogue about her sexuality and security in her job are so out of the blue that I was left wondering where it came from.Overall this is not a weepy because it aims higher than that and doesn't wrench all the emotion out of every scene to get the audience. However it doesn't aim high enough or reach the level where it is emotional or thought provoking, the end result being an interesting film that is a notch above the level of daytime TV weepy but not as worthy or moving as it wants to be.