Deep End

Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Year Released: 1970
Rating: 2.0

A teen (John Moulder-Brown) working at a bath house becomes fascinated with a female co-worker (Jane Asher), going so far as to carry around a nude cardboard cut-out of someone that 'looks' like her and then placing glass under her car tire and then blackmailing her for sexual favors (oh, horny teens, never change!). Trouble is, as a lead, Moulder-Brown is ineffectual and his character is one-dimensional - when he morphs into a deviant it seems like he was suddenly struck by psychosis ... or, at the very least, the screenwriters' need to bring the movie to a conclusion. On a more symbolic level it is considerably more successful, as Moulder-Brown's failed sexual encounter with Asher leads to frustration and tragedy: it's easier, it seems, for a confused young male to deal with a dead woman in a dream world than a live woman in the real world.