‘Deep Water’ is director Adrian Lyne’s display adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel of the identical identify. The movie retains a lot of the central dynamic — Vic (Ben Affleck) and Melinda’s (Ana de Armas) noxious relationship — that the ebook facilities on but in addition updates the narrative to trendy occasions.
In line with the movie’s morally gray theme, Vic is now a retired tech genius dwelling off his fortune from inventing a chip utilized in army drones. He spends his time in eccentric pursuits like elevating snails and printing pictures. Simply earlier than the movie’s finale, he palms Melinda a shiny journal titled “Xenophon,” with the digital camera lingering pointedly on the title. So what’s the that means of Xenophon in ‘Deep Water’? Let’s discover out.
What’s the Which means of Xenophon?
When Vic first meets Don, he enquires about what Vic does, clearly desirous to understand how he earns his cash. The latter’s imprecise responses of driving his mountain bike and taking pictures don’t fulfill Don, and eventually, Vic volunteers that he’s a photographer and dabbles in publication. The subject then turns to extra intriguing subjects like drones and homicide, and we solely get a glimpse a lot later of Vic’s photojournalism.
 – variety.com "What is Xenophon in Deep Water? Is it a Real Magazine? 2")
At a picnic on the gorge, the husband pulls out a shiny journal titled Xenophon, which, it turns into clear, is the publication he runs. It’s the tenth version and, devoted to Melinda, incorporates a sequence of pictures of her silhouette and numerous items of her clothes draped round the home. It’s all very sensual and presumably makes an attempt to offer audiences a glimpse of Melinda by means of the eyes of her doting husband.
The journal’s title, Xenophon, is probably going impressed by the Athenian Greek army chief, thinker, and historian of the identical identify. As a pupil and affiliate of Socrates, Xenophon is extensively recognized for his wealthy physique of surviving work which gives perception into classical Greece. Naming his picture journal “Xenophon” underscores the mental nature of Vic’s character, one thing the husband sometimes brings up each time he refers to Melinda’s comparatively lowbrow lovers.
Vic additionally seemingly fancies himself as a little bit of a thinker, stoically placing up with Melinda’s indiscretions due to his perception that since he fell in love together with her for who she is, he mustn’t attempt to change her. It’s fairly clear that no matter how others see him, Vic sees himself as fairly an mental, which might clarify him naming his publication after a classical Greek determine that’s well-known in well-read circles however may not be obvious to the “lesser learn” (particularly the likes of Melinda’s lovers).
Learn Extra: The place Was Deep Water Filmed?