On F List of Movie Reviews

(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)


Fatal Attraction (1987)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 8/03, 7/08

FatalA
7/08: It's clear: Fatal Attraction stole the plot from Play Misty from Me, and Clint Eastwood is calling Adrian Lyne to get him to fork over the profits.

Glenn Close is unattractive playing the "crazed" stalker. There's something about her hair that throws me off. Bad wig, perhaps? Plus, her eyes are demonic instead of alluring. She being the mistress is implausible given the fact that the wife is much better-looking.

When I see the soft lighting and minimalist New York background setting, I'm constantly reminded of 9½ Weeks. In other words, Adrian Lyne is trying to duplicate his success by using the same concept, hence his reputation as a one-dimensional director which has been endlessly proven in all of his films.

The first thirty minutes starts off with how and why. Then, the next hour drags down the pace. Finally, things start to pick up because obviously the truth has to come out. It's the last five minutes that's ludicrously stupid. One minute, Alex Forrest is choked to death and drowned in the bath tub. Even her eyes make no mistake of it. The next thing I know, she comes back alive just like Jason Voorhees going for the last stab while looking radiantly alive before she's gunned down. Thus, reality has been permanently suspended.

After experiencing Play Misty from Me and Fatal Attraction, I must ask this: is there a healthy way to resolve the conflict without the option of killing the stalker? The approach that both films took says it's the only solution. But this is not how the real world works. Anyhow, the funny thing about the sex fling between Michael Douglas and Glenn Close is that there isn't much to see. I think it happened so quickly that I wasn't sure what made them sexy despite the look of the movie poster. If there's a positive thing to say, Anne Archer and Ellen Hamilton Latzen have done a good job.

All in all, Fatal Attraction should be retitled as Desperate Attraction, and Clint Eastwood still wants the profits.