The Deep End is a 2001 American thriller film written and directed by David Siegel and Scott McGehee. It stars Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan Tucker and Josh Lucas and was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film was very loosely adapted from the novel The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (filmed before by Max Ophüls as The Reckless Moment). The film premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival where English cinematographer Giles Nuttgens won the Best Cinematography award.

Plot

Margaret Hall (Tilda Swinton) and her family live an upper middle class life in Tahoe City, California. Her husband is a pilot on the aircraft carrier USS ''Constellation''. She is startled to discover that her son Beau (Jonathan Tucker), a high school senior, has been having a sexual affair with 30-year-old Reno, Nevada, night club owner Darby Reese (Josh Lucas). Margaret visits Reese's nightclub, The Deep End, to demand that he stay away from her son. That night, Reese secretly visits Beau and the two meet in the boathouse. Beau confronts him about asking his mother for money. The two argue, eventually coming to blows. As Beau returns to the house, Reese leans on a railing, causing it to collapse, and falls into the water, impaling himself on an anchor.