When "Fatal Attraction" premiered in the late-80's it was a commercial and critical success, raking in cash at the box-office and heaps of praise from reviewers, mostly for a smart script and a scary good performance from Glenn Close. A comma in between "scary" and "good" would also have been acceptable as Close gives some electric acting that also sends pangs of fear straight down into your gut. Why it works for the great spectrum of viewers is because it has the makings of an excellent drama with the added twist of being a gripping thriller. There's a little something for everyone and a whole lot for a select few.
Michael Douglas stars as a copyright attorney named Dan, a happily married family man with a 6-year-old daughter who could possibly die of cuteness. At a promotional dinner for a new book Dan exchanges quick glances and mellow flirtations with the mysterious Alex (Close). We know that Dan is the cheating type even if he doesn't yet know it himself. After all, he's got a sexy wife, Beth (Anne Archer), with whom he has been in a monogamous relationship with for nine years. They're even planning on buying a house out in the country, away from the hustle and bustle of New York. And yet we see that the seeds are planted.
After another few chance encounters Dan and Alex spend a weekend together while his family is away. I suppose if an audience member had been completely ignorant to the plot, not having seen the film's trailer, they might begin to ask questions about the nature of love, a man's susceptibility to female allure, and whether we as human beings have evolved enough that monogamy should necessarily trump our innate, primal instinct to procreate. But the rest of us know better.
Behind her charm and her pretty face Alex is every cheating man's worse nightmare--she's worse, as I expect no man who has ever had a moment of infidelity ever believed he was in bed with a deranged psychopath. Dan's weakness comes back to haunt him as the layers of Alex's facade peal away leaving a scarred, lonely, insane woman who has deluded herself into thinking a weekend fling has evolved into love, and she will stop at nothing to make Dan hers.
This film had a real danger of crossing into melodrama territory. Some of the scenes are almost absurd in how far from reality they venture, and the Alex character is almost too extreme to be real. I have no doubt that a person like her actually exists, but I do doubt that she could hide in plain sight as well as Alex does. In order for the film to have been a success it needed strong actors to play their roles unflinchingly. I wouldn't say Michael Douglass does a bad job, but in fact he merely sprints to keep up with Close whose gives everything to the role. The script calls for a beautiful woman, and although I have never thought of her as beautiful (unless it's a kind of ugly-pretty) there is a certain demureness about her. What makes her so incredibly frightening is that we don't blame Dan from sleeping with her in the first place, she has a strange allure about her. And when things come around to bite Dan in the rear we still don't blame him for falling into Alex's traps. Close succeeds because even in the realm of extremely crazy there is still a semblance of humanity about her. When she wants to be she can act normal, even endearing.
Adrian Lyne has made a movie that is a thriller in the most literal sense of the word. Occasionally it tries to draw suspense where it doesn't want to be found, but in the barest way the film thrills. As we progress through Dan and Alex's story each of his nine layers of Hell reveal something new to be horrified by. Every phone call is a harbinger of doom, and as we approach the ninth and final layer we have left the territory of drama and are firmly planted on the edge of our seats. I can't discuss the details for all the fun of watching is not knowing how Alex is going to one-up herself on the psycho-scale.
There are editing and continuity issues, many interesting points that never get discussed in detail, and a sell-out ending that I didn't appreciate, but on the whole the film is a triumph of what it takes to please the snobs while paying the bills. It is as smart as it is entertaining, and a film that doesn't take its audience for granted.
3/4
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