Deeply

Deeply, by Canadian directory Sheri Elwood, has pretensions of being a fairy tale with the powers to heal the human soul, but the movie is gravely undermined by internal inconsistencies. This is one of those stories told within another story. In this case, the second story being told is one that has been written by crusty Lynn Redgrave and just been rejected by publishers. If only the movie's real producers had the same good sense as its fictional publishers. The movie opens with Claire (Julia Brendler), a troubled young girl who has just lost her boyfriend in a fatal accident, being dragged against her will to a practically deserted remote island somewhere on the East Coast. Claire soon meets Celia (Lynn Redgrave) who begins telling her a fairy tale that she has written and which has been rejected by unseeing and unthinking publishers. The movie is very careful not to provide any details as to where it is set (to the point of furnishing its actors — who are all ostensibly from the same area — with a plethora of somewhat East Coast-sounding accents). This, one supposes, is done to broaden the stories aspiring mythical appeal and give the characters a tinge of the everyman. But the story isn't that compelling and, as a result, the obscure nature of settings and the unfortunate plethora of accents tend to confuse. The viewer spends a good deal of the movie trying to figure out where exactly the movie is set, and why exactly the mother's and daughter's accents are completely different. And though the movie is overly-long, the story is never quite completed. The relationship between Claire and her mother, for instance, is completely drooped at the end of the movie and is never provided with closure.