Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Shopaholic35 All I can say is that the parents in this movie are beyond selfish and should never have been allowed to procreate. To start with it was the mother's fault that the little boy went missing in the first place and then instead of allowing herself to grieve and then pulling herself together she instead slides into a depressive state for the next 10 years, thereby permanently damaging the other kids she still has.Everybody faces horrible things in their lives but that is no excuse for the mother's behaviour. They treated the oldest son like a leaper. He was so young and did not deserve that burden. All he needed was for his parents to tell him it wasn't his fault, something so simple but they were too busy wallowing in their own self pity. Also the police detective played by Whoopi Goldberg was completely incompetent. Seriously stop focusing on the fact that your a black gay woman and maybe you would have found the kid. Worse still is when they finally find their long lost son they refuse to even care that they are now stealing him away from the only family he has ever known. His adoptive father was a good and decent parent and they owed it to their kid to at least try to work together to raise him. Along the way the parents completely forgot about every other person in their lives and only thought about themselves. Selfish!!!And finally, I know it's a movie but seriously when will parents learn that you cannot put a 6 year old in charge of a young toddler. Grow up and take responsibility for your children. Parenting is not easy. I'm pretty sure every parent in the world would agree with that but they chose to have kids, if you can't handle it then you shouldn't have had them to begin with.

Pierre Radulescu 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.

sddavis63 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.

MichaelOates "The Deep End Of The Ocean" was a movie that was supposed to bring tears from people's eyes but the director failed to do so and it sunk in the ocean after thirty minutes after it left port. "The Deep End Of The Ocean" stars Treat Williams, Michelle Pfieffer, and Jonathan Jackson. The cast billing is better than the film itself; and that says a lot for the writers and director. I was disappointed in Michelle Pfieffer as it seemed her performance was sub-par and seemed to be at the level of a beginner. "The Deep End Of The Ocean" was based around a kidnapping, no real mystery or suspense to speak of or no real tears came from my face. I mean if the director wants to make a movie surrounding this type of situation I would think that there should be more sentimental moments and cut out the arguments with the child that was kidnapped about what he should and should not do. The only thing that people should bring is a bag so they could put it over their heads to avoid watching it.Treat Williams really is the only actor worth recognizing in this bad mess they call a movie; though, there are good parts in this movie. Williams, your typical villain, plays Pat Cappadora the husband and father who keeps the family together after Ben was kidnapped. When, the mother was near a breakdown it was the father who held everything together and eventually was the one who snapped his wife into reality again. My only other favorite scene occurred between the two brothers.I wouldn't force this film on anyone, though it did have its moments.