Country:
USA
Starring:
Michael Douglas
Glenn Close
Anne Archer
Directed By:
Adrian Lyne
Michael Douglas had many lives in Hollywood. Different phases of his career brought different parts, who he would always be typecasted for. The 1987-1992 stretch brought the "young, successful and promiscuous men" era, which Douglas embodies with ease. During this period, his characters would bang everything with a pulse and always pay the price for it. You knew it was going to happen and yet, you couldn't root for Douglas, because his characters were never really the "good" guy. At least not in the goodie-two-shoes kind of way. I felt prompted to revisit FATAL ATTRACTION after reading South African powerhouse crime thriller CAPTURE, by Roger Smith and found out, to my utmost enjoyment, that I had completely forgotten how intense that movie was. Maybe it was my prepubescent failsafe trauma gene that blocked Glenn Close's beady-eyed stares or my consciousness that was unprepared for some Adrian Lyne goodness, but revisiting FATAL ATTRACTION and introducing it to Josie was a lot more fun than I thought it could be.
There's not much originality to the storyline in 2012, but back then, FATAL ATTRACTION was one of the first movies of its genre. Dan Gallagher (Douglas) is a lawyer for a big New York publisher. Everything is going along just fine for him. He has a wife (Archer), a daughter that looks like a little boy, a dog and he's about to buy a house. That's until he meets Alex (Close) at a book launching party, falls prey to her spell. Michael Douglas being who he was in the 80's, Dan cannot keep it in his pants and spends a steamy hot weekend with Alex (and everything is depicted ON SCREEN, ladies and gentlemen, that's the cocaine years for you.) Like a pro, he goes in and out and hopes to walk away from this unscathed. Only problem, Alex is not well in the head. In fact, the sexy and mysterious co-worker is 100% cuckoo and appointed Dan to be the sole object of her obsessions.
What makes FATAL ATTRACTION so striking, is that everybody on the set knows exactly what the hell they're doing. They're all on the same page and working in the same direction. This is extremely rare in Hollywood, so whenever the stars align and it happens, it doesn't have a choice but to be memorable. James Dearden's screenplay shows signs of extensive research about mental diseases. But the way Glenn Close honors Dearden's writing with a spellbinding, transcendent performance, brings everything to life. She is SO good at playing Alex Forrest's psychosis. Douglas is dealt a more difficult character, but does the impossible at portraying Dan, who struggles to remain stable as he is brought further and further down into the abyss of madness.
You can't pass under silence the terrific work of Adrian Lyne behind the camera either. The expert craftsman also responsible for JACOB'S LADDER and FLASHDANCE knows exactly what he's doing. There's very little flare to FATAL ATTRACTION and yet, his presence is felt throughout. His shots are patient, but never too long. Lyne is aware that time alters the viewer's perception and sometimes, letting a stare drag a little too long or leaving something in the frame on purpose, long enough for the viewers to spot it, will change everything about the movie. Also, the chemistry with his actors is palpable. He trusts Glenn Close and gives her the floor whenever she's in the frame. Her performance couldn't have been as good if Lyne didn't focus on her so much. When she's around, his editing slows down, the shots widen and she's left with her terrific acting game to terrify us. Lyne's use of silence is also uncanny. The way FATAL ATTRACTION is structured, his characters don't always need to talk, which has become lost art in Hollywood.
I'm not going to lie. FATAL ATTRACTION feels a little dated, visually. It's a zeigeist movie of the eighties and God knows how ridiculous everything was back then. People dressed ugly, music was crap, conformism was at an all-time high. The content ends up overriding this issue about twenty minutes in, when Douglas, pants at his ankles, is awkwardly carrying Glenn Close across her kitchen, so they can crash and have sex on her bed. FATAL ATTRACTION is a pure thriller like they don't do them anymore. It's a movie that makes you tense enough to turn your innards into a ball of yarn and makes you want to sleep with the ligh open, just in case where was a psychotic lady with a butcher knife hiding in your closet. Please Hollywood. leave this movie be forever awesome and don't reboot it. I will be happy with a blu-ray transfer, I promise. You can't do better than Michael Douglas in white, button-downed shirts and crazy broads with knives. It's a perfect object, forever congealed in time.
SCORE: 90%