The Deep End of the Ocean

Beth Cappadora is a photographer and mother of three living in Madison with her husband Pat, a restaurant owner. During a high school reunion trip, the family stays at a crowded Chicago hotel, and in a moment when Beth's attention is elsewhere, her three-year-old son Ben vanishes. Searches by police and family turn up nothing, and years pass with the case unresolved.

Nine years later, the Cappadoras have relocated to Chicago, where Pat has opened a restaurant. A boy named Sam enters their lives and bears a striking resemblance to Ben, prompting Beth, Pat, their daughter Kerry, their troubled teenage son Vincent and a determined police officer, Candy Bliss, to confront a reunion that brings as much strain as relief, since the child has grown up in another household with no memory of his first family.

Ulu Grosbard directed this 1999 drama, the fourth of the films he directed, following Straight Time, True Confessions and Falling in Love. Stephen Schiff wrote the screenplay, and Michelle Pfeiffer, who also produced, stars as Beth alongside Treat Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Ryan Merriman, Jonathan Jackson and Cory Buck. Made for a budget of about 38 million dollars, it earned roughly 28 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 6.3 rating from around 23,000 votes, and on TMDB a 6.6 from 553 votes; a critics' rating of 5.7 from 36 reviews places critics below audiences.