Deep Water.

"In its calm and expert way, Deep Water confirms all the mythical terrors that lurk in our dreams of the sea, and the best person to watch it with would be Melville," writes Anthony Lane in the New Yorker.

"What really happened out there on the trimaran christened Teignmouth Electron, as it drifted toward South America and [Donald] Crowhurst began falsifying logbooks and transmitting unintelligible telegraph messages?" asks Scott Foundas in the LA Weekly. "It is the point - and the power - of Deep Water that the vast, unknowable fathoms of the sea are rivaled only by those of the human psyche."

Updated through 8/24.

"Given that the tedium of months on the open seas could and did drive a man insane, co-directors Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell have done a commendable job of making Deep Water... well, not boring," writes Julia Wallace in the Voice.

And Susan King talks with them for the Los Angeles Times.

Update: "Engrossing and insightful, it's a gut-wrenching case study in fatally boxing oneself into a corner," writes Nick Schager at Slant.

Updates, 8/24: Rachel Saltz in the New York Times: "Again and again you want to shout at the screen: 'Turn back. All will be forgiven.' This tale of risk, though, ends not with man conquering nature but in calamitous failure."

Online listening tip. Kenneth Turan on NPR; he's also got a review in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at August 23, 2007 4:11 AM