The Deep End of the Ocean

Release date:March 12, 1999

Directed by:Ulu Grosbard

Rated:

Runtime:105 minutes

The Deep End of the Ocean is an American motion picture drama directed by Ulu Grosbard, and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Jonathan Jackson and Ryan Merriman. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jacquelyn Mitchard, a bestseller that was the very first... novel selected by Oprah Winfrey to be discussed on Oprah's Book Club in 1996. Beth Cappadora and her husband Pat experience a parent's worst fear when their son Ben vanishes in a crowded hotel lobby during Beth's high school reunion. The ensuing frantic search is unsuccessful, and Beth goes through a sustained nervous breakdown. Unable to cope with her devastation, Beth unintentionally neglects her other children, Vincent and Kerry . After nine years, the family has seemingly accepted that Ben has gone forever, when a familiar-looking boy turns up at their house, introduces himself as Sam and offers to mow their lawn.
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A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and... in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century. Further definition of the genre is historically difficult. The construction of the narrative, the plot, the way reality is created in the works of fiction, the fascination of the character study, and the use of language are usually discussed to show a novel's artistic merits. Most of these requirements were introduced in the 16th and 17th centuries, in order to give fiction a justification outside the field of factual history. The fictional narrative, the novel's distinct "literary" prose, specific media requirements , a characteristic subject matter that creates both intimacy and a typical epic depth can be seen as features that developed with the Western market of fiction. The separation of a field of histories from a field of literary fiction fueled the evolution of these features in the last 400 years.
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