Plummeting new depths
DEEP END DIRECTOR: Eubulus Timothy CAST: Carishma Basday, Mahendra Raghunath, Greg Kriek
CLASSIFICATION: 13 DLPV RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes RATING: ★✩✩✩✩
DEEP End is hands down one of the worst films I’ve watched in the last five years.
Sunitha Patel (Carishma Basday), a young Indian girl in Durban, yearns to become a world-class surfer – a decision her traditional family isn’t supportive of.
In this exciting era for film, where the bar is constantly raised with the industry upping its game, this movie falls terribly short with its screenplay, misplaced collection of aerial shots of Durban, directing and acting.
It’s so cringe-worthy that it makes school plays a more inviting option. Heck, I’ve watched better student films, with a far superior script.
The scenes appear very disjointed, with abrupt endings, reflecting poorly on director Eubulus Timothy. By doing so, the audience fails to properly connect with the actors, and their respective journeys.
The filmmaking faux pas continue...
By the way, Timothy is also the architect behind this story. Perhaps, he was too close to the project to do the story justice as a director. I wonder.
The actors do their best to deliver lines that hold little sincerity. Another annoying point is the director allowing the actors to look off into the distance instead of making eye contact with each other. This is prevalent in international soapies and telenovelas, where the director tries to exact a “poignant performance”. And it works for them, but it is an ill-fit for this movie.
In exploring themes of an interracial relationship and stereotypes, Timothy’s approach is most disturbing.
Sunitha’s love interest, Cory Taylor, stalks her into submission.
In real life, most women would not just run for the hills, but get a restraining order.
Every story of this nature needs an antagonist to provide dramatic levity to the storytelling.
Sadly, the writing fails to contextualise the disapproval by Sunitha’s father. Context is everything.
Simply put, Deep End drowns in a convoluted execution of a drawn-out idea. The acting is bad. The directing, worse. And, and, and...
If Durban ever needed to promote the beachfront, this film would make for a great commercial – once shortened to a few minutes, of course.
Invest your money in watching a more worthy local production, there’s a few on the movie circuit.