The Deep End

Perhaps inevitably, this suffers in comparison both with McGehee and Siegel's extraordinary debut Suture and with Max Ophuls' The Reckless Moment, of which this is an intelligent, gay-inflected remake. Swinton gives one of her finest performances yet as the woman whose teenage son gets involved with a gay hustler; when she finds the man's corpse, she tries to hide it, but soon finds herself being blackmailed. Changing the gender of her offspring spices and thickens the brew, rather than creating a whole new flavour, but the film-makers have succeeded in translating the story for the present without the melodrama becoming merely hysterical or camp. Giles Nuttgens' cool, sumptuous shots of the Lake Tahoe settings fit the mood admirably.