[The films made by Jerzy Skolimowski] have indicated that he learned quite young how to study his fellow humans with a shrewd balance of objectivity and compassion. The process continues in Deep End…. Its internationalism, in the important sense, resides in the universality of the theme: the pitfalls of adolescence.

As Skolimowski himself grows older (he will never see 30 again, so they say), his central figures become increasingly younger, as if he were tracing life's enigma to its source. (p. 90)

The greater part of the film is played for humour, and the interesting thing is that this is never too extreme (as it was, I thought, in sections of Le Départ). It is difficult to tell whether Skolimowski was trying sometimes to mock the traditional British reserve: if so, he has seen it very quaintly and with a certain validity….

The film has resolved itself into a...