Okay dokey, its that time for yet another review on this blog, which sees me go back to the 1980s vault once more and I've gone for a classic thriller, Fatal Attraction, which was a huge commercial hit back when it was released in 1987. So there's alot to look at so might as well get to it...
Soooooo starting with the obligatory plot summary the film is set in New York city and begins with Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) an attorney, who is happy married and goes along to a business party with his wife Beth (Anne Archer). At the party Dan meets a woman named Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) who clearly they have an attraction for one another but they part ways shortly after. The next day while Beth and her and Dan's daughter Ellen (Ellen Latzen Hamilton) go away for the weekend, Dan ends up meeting Alex again at his work at a meeting. After the meeting the two of them have lunch together, they admit their attraction for one another and they return to Alex's apartment and have sex. The following day after spending the night at Alex's flat, Dan leaves early and goes back home and he receives a call from Alex who almost insists that they meet up again, which they do and share a good time together, have dinner together (and more sex!). However as Dan tries to explain that he sees what happened as nothing more than a fling, Alex refuses to let go and when he tries to leave she attempts suicide by cutting her wrists. Dan bandages up her wrists and gently reassures her will call her again and he heads back home.
And as Dan forgets about their affair, Alex continues to pester him by first of all showing up at his office, where she offers him a ticket to go and see an opera together, which Dan turns down. Alex then continually calls Dan's office after a while Dan tells his secertary to tell he's not there whenever she calls. Alex doesn't stop there either as she continues to phone Dan at his home (and she hangs up when Beth answers it) and Dan eventually agrees to meet with her. On their meeting Alex tells Dan that she is now pregnant and she insists that it is his baby, but Dan is not interested in this but Alex tells he must take responsibility. Alex next up shows up at their apartment, pretending to be a prospective buyer for their flat, meeting with Beth, who gives them their new phone number for their newly bought house out in Bedford (a town in Westchester county, New York) should she need to contact them. Later that night, a furious Dan turns up at Alex's apartment and confronts her over her actions, which ends up as a violent struggle with Dan threatening to kill Alex if she tells Beth about their affair.
Dan soon after with his family move to their new house in Bedford, but Alex is still determined as ever to get to Dan, as she sends him a tape full of verbal abuse, and she also pours acid on his car, while its in a parking lot. Alex also follows Dan back to his new home (while he listens to Alex's tape) and as he arrives and takes in a bunny rabbit as a gift for his daughter, Alex looks from afar into the window of their home as she sees Dan happily give the rabbit to his daughter, and family image makes Alex physically wretch. Alex's obssession continues to escalate as she sneaks into Dan's new home whilst they are out and kills the bunny and boils it in a pot. On finding the bunny, Dan finally admits to Beth of the affair he had with Alex and that she is pregnant, which enrages Beth who screams for him to get out, which Dan does so and goes to stay in a motel. Alex then picks up Ellen from school just before Beth arrives to get her, as the teachers tell that they thought Beth had already taken, Beth drives off in a blind panic trying to find her daughter and crashes her car and ends up in hospital with minor injuries. Dan later barges into Alex's apartment and violently struggles with her, as he nearly chokes the life out of her, he eventually let's go of her, only then to have Alex charge at him with a kitchen knife, however Dan manages to disarm her, and he quietly places the knife down on the kitchen worktop and leaves. Beth soon forgives Dan and he returns home to look after her, however at night as Beth prepares a bath, she sees a crazed Alex standing in the doorway with a familiar looking kitchen knife.....
There is no doubt that Fatal Attraction remains one of the most effective thrillers in modern cinema and it struck a powerful chord at the time with the public and it certainly did its part in warning about the dangers of involved in infedility. The film itself naturally was a big success at the time of its release and rightly so as it is a highly entertaining, suspenseful and at times very unsettling film. And the two lead characters are what drives the film, with Dan being the happily married man, who decides to indulge in the affair without thinking about the consequences, and Alex who is powerfully attracted to Dan, and refuses to let go of him and proceeds to turn his life upside down in an attempt to reach him. And as the film progresses it becomes more intense as events spiral wildly out of control.
And what makes Fatal Attraction work so well is the performances, which are all top drawer, particularly the two leads. Starting with Michael Douglas as Dan, who is great in his role as a married man, who has a passionate fling with Alex. Douglas plays Dan pretty much as an easy going charming guy, who makes the mistake of his life by having an affair with Alex. At first you could argue that Dan doesn't deserve much sympathy as he rather selfishly decides to have the fling and then try and ditch Alex without much thought for her. However as Dan's life is turned upside down by Alex, allegiances start to change as Dan starts to fear for the safety of himself and his family. Douglas has some great scenes in the film, especially in his confrontational scenes with Close, as Dan and Alex argue in her apartment, in the first scene he threatens to kill her and in the second scene her very nearly does kill her! Although arguably his most potent scene is where he quietly talks to his friend, Jimmy (Stuart Pankin), about how Alex is continually harrassing his family and he admits "I'm scared, Jimmy and I don't want to lose my family". Douglas also has some amusing moments aswell though, especially in the scene after Dan and Alex go out dancing they go back to her apartment and they have sex in the elevator, which Alex stops mid-way between floors and proceeds to perform oral sex on him. This is followed by the scene where Alex opens her apartment door and Dan drunkenly puts his hand out to reach after her as she goes in, which is one of the film's funny low key moments.
Glenn Close however it has to be said gives the best performance of the film by far as the obssessively unhinged yet sympathetic Alex, who falls head over heels in love with Dan, and is devastated by his decision to end their affair, which sees her makes his life a living hell after doing so (and the film also popularly coined the phrase "bunny boiler" after the bunny boiling scene, well speaks for itself really!). Close has so many highlights in the film, and she is at times chilling and at other times quite pitiful. And one of her most unsettling moments actually comes early on in the film when she calls up Dan after he left the following morning after their first day together, and she says to him "Where were you? I woke up and you weren't here. I hate that". Its in this scene where the alarm bells start ringing and you realise there is definitely something amiss here with her. And one of Close's best scenes is where she meets with Dan at his office and offers him to go to the Madame Butterfly opera with her, but when he refuses and Dan hugs her goodbye, we see over his shoulder than Alex has a look of agony as she is clearly heartbroken, its a great moment in her performance. Also in her scene where Dan confronts Alex at her apartment (the first apartment confrontation scene that is) Dan insists this has to stop and Alex says "No its going to on and on until you face up to your responsibilities. I'm not just going to be ignored Dan!". And in their second confrontation at Alex's apartment, after their violent struggle, and the unforgettable image of Alex charging toward Dan, screaming with the kitchen knife in her hand, after Dan disarms her, Alex gives Dan a strange smile just as he leaves the apartment, which is another terrific moment from Close. Then there is the scene after Dan turns down Alex's offer to go to the opera, that we see Dan out happy with his family at a bowling alley juxtaposed with Alex sitting sadly at home, switching her lamp on and off. And lastly one of Alex's more amusing scenes is when she continually tries to dial Dan's home phone number, she tries the operator who tells her the number has been disconnected and changed, but the operator says he can't give out that information and she angrily yells "Well fuck you!" and the operator sarcastically replies "My place or yours?!".
In the supporting performances Ann Archer is fine (and rather fine also) in her role as Dan's loving wife, and she also get's some good moments, such as in the scene where she frantically tries to find her daughter Ellen and she ends up crashing her car. Also the scene where Dan tells her of the affair and she angrily screams at him to get out of the house "I want you out of here! What is the matter with you??!". But her best moment is when Dan calls up Alex and tells her that Beth now knows about the affair and he puts Beth onto her who says "This is Beth Gallagher, if you ever come near my family again I will kill you" and hangs up the phone. Stuart Pankin who plays Dan's friend and fellow lawyer, Jimmy, does not too badly in his small role and he provides one or two moments of amusement, especially where he takes the piss out of the Japanese business mogul who attended the company's party during a dinner party with Dan and Beth. He also amusingly in the first scene where we see Alex, draw daggers from her as he tries to turn on the charm and say "Hi". Ellen Hamilton Latzen is great as Dan and Beth's daughter, Ellen, who is basically just a sweet young girl who is a real delight throughout, and you feel for her in the scene where Beth yells at Dan to get out and she stands sobbing. Ellen also has a funny moment at the start of the film where Beth drops something on herself and says "Shit! Shit! Shit!" and Ellen copies what she says as she walks down the hall. And finally Fred Gwynne provides a neat little cameo as one of Dan's colleagues, Arthur, although he is clearly underused in the film.
Getting onto Adrian Lynne as the director, he does a splendid job here and he brilliantly racks up the tension as the film progresses, which reaches fever pitch as it progresses to its dramatic climax. Lynne also went on to direct the critically acclaimed thriller, Jacob's Ladder starring Tim Robbins, but there is no doubt this is where he firmly established himself as a filmmaker. Lynne also employes stylish shots in his films, such as shots where the camera is tilted to the side, which we see in the scenes where Dan attacks Alex at her apartment, and Beth runs up the stairs in her home in a panic to find her daughter Ellen. Also another memorable aspect of the film is Maurice Jarre's electronic score, which is quite creepy and unsettling at times, although it does sound a little cheesy and melodramatic in moments, as it is a purely synthesized score it also sounds dated to its time in the 80s. However for the most part it remains one of Jarre's most highly effective scores and it complements the film's tone really well.
As for the film's flaws? Yes well ok there are one or two, starting with the main one which would have to be why would Dan want to have an affair in the first place if his a happily married man? Especially as he is married to a beautiful woman such as Anne Archer then surely there is no necessity for him to go outside their marriage and have an extra-marital relationship. The film's subplot with Alex announcing her pregnancy also feels a bit slapped on and you never know if Alex really is pregnant or not or is she simply using it as a way to get his attention, as she later on says herself to him she won't be ignored, so maybe she was using this as a weapon against him to ensure he could never just walk away. Also given the threats of AIDS back in the 1980s at the time, if Dan was going to have an affair, then why didn't he practice in safe sex then???? Surely he should have worn protection to avoid any such thing happening if that is the case (but it is Hollywood after all so these eventualities never really are explained are they??).
There are also some silly illogical moments such as every time when Alex called Dan's apartment why didn't Beth when she answered it put two and two together, or even better use *69 to find out who called! (or maybe that feature wasn't in existance back then). There is also that same old issue in thrillers where the villain somehow manages to sneak into a house or apartment without being detected! As Alex somehow manages to break into their home, boil the bunny and also later on sneak in undetected at the end to creep upstairs to the bathroom where Beth is running her bath (although in that scene we see Dan lock the door before that event, which suggests she managed to sneak before the doors were locked). You could also say the film is slightly let down by its over the top climax with Alex finally showing up at Dan's new home complete with kitchen in her hand, as she fidgets away with her kitchen knife as it starts to cut into her dress and her skin and a big struggle ensues between her and Dan, but it nevertheless has one last effective jumpy moment before its all over.
But despite all that Fatal Attraction still to this day remains one of the most effective, suspenseful and memorable thrillers of the 1980s and its message is still relevant in how that all married men (or men in any relationship) should think twice before they let the little head do the talking! ;-)
And with that I shall leave yeee there.
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