The film can't decide if it wants to be erotic or not. They are in a loveless marriage so I guess that would make sense. There is zero chemistry between Affleck and de Armas - which to be fair is kind of the point. Surely a scene was cut out, but in the cut we got it seemed utterly bizarre. And before that, where did the guy even come from? He just appears in the middle of nowhere with no context or reason for him being there. Instead as a big finale we get a shocking chase scene between a bike and car - where the character in the car actually says "what, are you going to chase me down on your bike?" - and then yes that's exactly what happens. From there you are just left asking yourself, where is this film heading? Is there some twist that's going to come out of left field and blow me away? Nope. But no, even that they had to spoil by revealing all their cards incredibly early. It could've worked as a mystery if nothing else. I was shocked at how straight forward the story was. This film had none of those things I'm sad to say. With Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas on board I figured they must've been lured by a very good script that would be full of twists and seduction and style, much like 'Basic Instinct'. Watch on Hulu.I'm slightly ashamed to admit I had 'Deep Water' on my list of 10 most anticipated films for 2022. Like Vic’s snails, who must be starved before they can be consumed, “Deep Water” feels like a movie that’s had everything of interest well and truly sucked out.ĭeep Water Rated R for bored fellatio and passionate murders. Yet there’s surprisingly little sex, and what there is has none of the vividness and tactility Lyne is known for. Originally intended for theatrical release, “Deep Water” has landed on Hulu, possibly because of nervousness over its themes. Eigil Bryld’s caressing camera is fully up to any task his director sets him, but the movie appears chopped into misaligned chunks and dangling loose ends, its scenes spat out as randomly as bingo balls. Though heaven knows I’m grateful for any grown-up movie these days, “Deep Water” is in many ways a baffling return for Lyne, whose advertiser’s eye for the allure of an image is repeatedly undercut by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson’s messy, often mystifying screenplay. None of this is ever less than preposterous. Even Vic’s 6-year-old daughter (a delightful Grace Jenkins) looks at him askance. And as Melinda’s flings - including a cheesy pianist who woos her by playing “The Lady Is a Tramp” - continue to vanish, a local writer (Tracy Letts) grows suspicious. Miller), and we wonder if he’s capable of joking. “I killed him,” Vic tells the dimwitted replacement (Brendan C. When the movie opens, a previous lover of Melinda’s has mysteriously disappeared. Vic might be tortured by her flagrant infidelities, but how can you stay mad at a woman who gets topless just to wash the dishes?Īs it is, Affleck is left with little to play but a sorry, perpetually glum cuckold. (Glistening gastropod close-ups suggest this hobby has some ominous narrative purpose let me know if you find one.) Vic’s gorgeous wife, Melinda (Ana de Armas) - rarely seen without a glass in one hand and a lover in the other - favors little black dresses that shrug off as easily as her sobriety. Vic (Ben Affleck) is retired, enjoying his tech-derived fortune by mountain biking and raising snails. On paper, then, he seems the perfect choice to direct “Deep Water,” an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel about a dangerously sick suburban marriage. (That would be his 1987 sizzler, “Fatal Attraction.”) A slickly accomplished purveyor of the erotic thriller, Lyne doesn’t make love stories so much as lust stories - specifically, the way an incorrigible sexual appetite can rip a life apart. Two decades have passed since Adrian Lyne made “Unfaithful,” maybe his best film, though not his best known.
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