A surprise blast from the past Michelle Pfeiffer film has entered the top ten list of Netflix in the past couple of weeks. The 1999 Ulu Grosbard film, The Deep End of the Ocean, has nestled itself in the number four spot with 6.42million watch hours as of this week.
It is right behind The Mother (currently with 83.7million watch hours), A Man Called Otto (19.8million watch hours), and The Croods (8.7million watch hours).
Based on the Jacquelyn Mitchard novel of the same name, the film featured Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Beth Cappadora, Treat Williams as Pat Cappadora, Michael McElroy and Ryan Merriman who played Ben Cappadora at ages three and 12 respectively, Jonathan Jackson, Alexa Vega, Brenda Song, John Kapelos, and Whoopi Goldberg. The 1996 bestseller holds the distinction of being the first novel ever selected by Oprah Winfrey for her famous Book Club.
The movie tells the story of the Cappadora family, whose lives are upturned when their three-year-old son, Ben, goes missing during Beth’s high school reunion. The film explores how this devastating event impacts Beth and Pat’s marriage and their lives. After nearly a decade, a boy named Sam shows up at their house, and it leads to revelations that further shake up the family. But unlike Changeling, this tale of an estranged mother-son duo, has a happier ending.
Despite receiving mixed reviews, Pfeiffer’s performance was lauded by most critics. She had recently adopted her daughter Claudia Rose (in 1993) and would get distressed by stories of children at peril. As per a report on EW, Pfeiffer had walked out of Mel Gibson’s 1996 film Ransom after barely sitting there for ten minutes. “I physically couldn’t stay in my seat,” she had told EW. “I hate movies where the plot hinges on a child in jeopardy.”
But when she came across Mitchard’s book through her producing partner Kate Guinzburg, she couldn’t put it down. “Kate sent me the book. There were times when I couldn’t put it down, and there were times when I had to put it down, just to catch my breath.” The producers were so impressed with Mitchard’s novel that they went ahead to buy the rights to Mitchard’s life story as well.
Pfeiffer mentioned to CNN that Mitchard’s treatment of filial relationships and family appealed to her greatly: “For me, I think … what the movie is about is that our traditional way of defining family doesn’t always apply,” she was quoted as saying. “I think that … we see a lot of change around us, and a lot more awareness of that, and you know that so much of what defines a family is not always genetic and biological.”
