Vic returns from a bike ride. He takes off his track bottom, leaving it in a pair of cycling shorts (not erotic). Melinda gives him a smile and a funny look. “What?” see the Vic. “Nothing,” Melinda says. Cut to the title screen! Boom! Or whatever the opposite of the “boom” is. But at the end of the not-in-one-way-erotic erotic thriller, we learn that the boring opening was actually the non-boring ending.
The circle back to the start allows the viewer to understand that the opener, which mixes as a normal interaction between a loving couple, is actually a snapshot of a man who returned – after picking a corpse with a stick and another Man of the street – to a woman who decided to keep a blind eye on all his murders.
Is that how the book ends?
It is not. The original story does not end well for either half of the toxic couple. In the book, Melinda orchestrates a way for Don to discover evidence of Tony’s murder, while Vic examines Tony’s body (a bit like in the movie), even though Don does not vote for his car, he survives. At the end, knowing that he is being taken by Don to the police, Vic goes home and interrupts Melinda before Don and a police officer arrive at the house.
The film has an ending that is more reminiscent of Gone girl, who also suspected Affleck as a man of killing his wife. In that case, his wife (played by Rosamund Pike) is the bigger psycho and at the end of the movie the two are stuck together. It is interesting to note this Gone girl Author Gillian Flynn Lists Deep water among her favorite books, so it seems fitting that this film version shares DNA with her work.
Let’s talk about that credit sequence!
Deep water contains more than an average number of scenes of people singing with things. Often, though not exclusively, these are chased by Melinda, though Vic and Melinda’s daughter Trixie enjoy a bit of a sing-along. So at the end of the movie, just after the beat, where we understand that the murderous Vic and the considerable Melinda are stuck together forever, torture each other and cause harm to those in their orbit, play the credits to Trixie (Grace Jenkins) sang “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” in the back of her car.
We see her singing this song before with her dad, one of the very few scenes where he actually makes a laugh. There is some very strange energy with this ending. What does it mean? Maybe nothing. And maybe it’s just a joke. But maybe there is more.
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