Fatal Attraction

Glenn Close must have a very interesting relationship with Hollywood, as while she’s been recognized as one of the great actors, she’s never been given the recognition to support this. Notoriously being nominated for eight Academy Awards throughout the course of her long career, yet always falling to win one, there must be a sense of frustration she feels knowing her work is impressive enough to get constantly picked for the year’s best performances, but never enough to actually get awarded for it. While still getting work, she’s probably past the point where the Academy will acknowledge her again (outside of an honorary Oscar which she is set to receive at the next Academy Awards for 2026), so it’ll be interesting to see if she’s ever graced with another Award-winning role, with one of her most infamous movies, Fatal Attraction, being one that helped cement her as an influential performer.

Dan Gallagher (played by Michael Douglas) is a happily married literary attorney in Manhattan, who is left at home for a week while his wife, Beth (played by Anne Archer) and his infant daughter, Ellen, travel to the countryside to look over a property they intent to purchase. Trying to get stuck into work, Dan finds his attentions diverted when he meets Alex Forrest (played by Glenn Close), an editor for a publishing company associated with his firm, and after a few choice encounters, enters a fiery affair with her that lasts the week of his family’s absence. Deciding to break it off once they’ve returned, Dan quickly learns that Alex is far more mentally unstable than he expected, stalking him at every turn and doing everything to interfere with him and his life until he acknowledges what they had. What started as indecent quickly turns dangerous as she brings his wife and daughter into the mix, forcing him to come clean about his infidelity and face the consequences of his actions.

A 1987 psychological erotic thriller released by Paramount, Fatal Attraction was as red-hot as its subject material, bringing in $320 million dollars on a budget of $14 million, received six Academy Award nominations (including Best Actress, Supporting Actress, Director and Picture) and became a pop culture phenomenon that helped birth the erotic thriller boom that lasted from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. While it does sacrifice a truly in-depth exploration of its scenario for something more clean-cut and consumer-friendly, the passionate and visceral visual language, strong performances, and solid direction and scripting make it a feature worthy of its accolades.

Erotic thrillers would become huge after the release of this movie with examples like Basic Instinct, Bound, Presumed Innocent, and Single White Female, and the genre can actually be very intriguing and be used for more than just smut. With these kinds of dangerous and immorally passionate love affairs tying in nicely with the messy psychology of the characters and their actions, it presents a tone and environment where things can be unclean and less fancied up for cinematic purposes, allowing for darker stories that can show the worst and dirtiest parts of humanity. It’s only fitting that the person to spearhead this new genre would be director, Adrian Lyne, a filmmaker known for making sexually charged movies that explored topics like conflicting passions, the power of seduction and the indelibility of Infidelity, through movies like Flashdance, 9 ½ Weeks, Jacob’s Ladder, Lolita, and Indecent Proposal. Fatal Attraction also contains many of these subject matters, tackles the very tumultuous topic of adultery, and provides a cautionary hypothetical that certainly plays up the drama and stakes, but feels surprisingly grounded thanks to the believable performances, authentic environments, and pretty compelling script written by James Dearden (who adapted the material from his 1980 short film, Diversion) which unfolds its plot in a way that’s not always easy to predict.

The first act does a good job softening the audience into a scenario that has twinges of sultriness, but overall is presented and performed in a pretty normal fashion, but this is flipped on its head as things start to get more chaotic, with the ensuing craziness being emulated not just through the more frantic performing style and pacing, but also in the visuals as well, with the more muted color palette, sweaty and overly personal cinematography, and more dangerous and threatening atmosphere transforming this narrative that could’ve felt a bit exploitative, and make it feel unhinged yet still cuttingly real. While the direction and script do a good job bringing flavor and punchiness to this idea, the film sidesteps a really complicated in-depth dissection of this kind of scenario in exchange for something more cinematically mainstream, which doesn’t hinder it entirely, but does weaken what could’ve been a fantastic delivery. Even though the film does feel more realistic than expected, it fails to properly punish the lead for his misbehaviour and kind of ignores the genuine reaction of the female fling by using her insanity to mask any of her cries for sympathy, and it would’ve been fascinating to see a film where that hurdle wasn’t in the way.

The actors all do a good job presenting themselves as very believable functional people in the first act, before spiralling into more manic and deranged renditions of themselves, conveying that sensibility while still containing a twinge of realism behind their responses and actions. Glenn Close clearly got the most attention for her role as Alex Forrest, but despite the status it’s given her, she was actually at the end of a long list of women up for the part originally, including Barbara Hershey, Tracey Ullman, Miranda Richardson, Michelle Pfeiffer and many more. With producers Sherry Lansing and Stanley R. Jaffe initially being hesitant to cast her as they believed she wouldn’t be sexy enough, it turned out that her unexpected allure is what made her such a fantastic choice, as she really does a great job capturing this woman who is clearly mentally unstable and will do anything to get the man she loves, but has enough shades that she isn’t a total trope at the very least. While the script does occasionally present her as more complicated, her unravelling feels like an excuse to toss aside the bad behaviour of the lead and wash away the legitimate moral quandary the film could’ve looked into, but even with that unfortunate oversight, Close is very enthralling and balances between manic anger and desperate adoration so naturally that it can be pretty chilling to watch.

While he was ironically ignored at the Oscars, Michael Douglas is also very good in this, using his naturally hyperactive and intense performing style to great effect in this part, as watching him come to pieces after seeing the mess he’s built for himself, and his family is pretty captivating. One of the major criticisms of the film is that it never feels like the character is properly punished or takes accountability for his involvement in the situation (it could’ve been avoided if he literally just didn’t cheat on a wife who he seems to have no problems with). The escalating damaged inflicted on his family does make him right in fighting her off, but beforehand, his dismissal and apathy to her after establishing this fling feels very selfish and arrogant, and the fact the film not only fails to address his problem, but paint him as the sole good recipient, feels a little sexist coded (which the writer actually agrees with and regrets how he adapted it years later). Even though she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Anne Archer honestly doesn’t have a lot to do in this movie and doesn’t feel necessarily worthy of that title despite doing a perfectly nice job, and this can also be said for the remaining supporting cast as well (all fine, but nothing that stand-out).

For a movie that could’ve been carried by its direction, performances and script alone, it’s nice that the visuals and overall production also help elevate the material and becomes a character in their own right. Whether it’s the great cinematography by Howard Atherton, which forces the audience right into the dirty escapade with very tight angles that shakes with the ferocity of the leads when in a moment of peril, the rapid editing by Michael Kahn and Peter E. Berger which expertly builds up to suspenseful moments with such intricacy that it’s often hard to tell when the ball is going to drop, or the production design by Mel Bourne which nicely contrasts the lead’s living standards with his love-stricken stalking very nicely (going from Douglas’ clean apartment complex build for a family, to Close’ dingy, barely stable, apartment that looks like it’s build in the dark corners of town on the verge of being demolished says a lot without needing to outright state anything), it adds to the personality of the film and helps juggle that line between cinematic elevation and down-in-the-dirt reality. The very dim lighting and overall sense of unpolish makes every aspect of this film feel dirty, unclean and containing something off that’ll be unsurfaced later, creating a space that never feels safe or secure.

Fatal Attraction kickstarted a genre that might seem like basic smut on the surface (and could be played as such by certain movies), but opened up the potential for stories and presentations that could let loose and not be afraid to present something ‘’risqué’’ or ‘’inappropriate’’, and this movie is a great example of what can come from this genre. While it does sacrifice an in-depth analysis of what creates these stalkers and the problematic nature of cheating (it always takes two to ‘tango’ yet only one partner is always vilified), what’s left behind is still pretty compelling, well executed, and responsible for several iconic performances, scenes and lines. The script is well written, the directing adds to the vibe and identity of the film, the actors are giving it their all (especially Douglas and Close), and the visuals and overall aesthetic really bring the audience into the situation and make them feel just as raunchy (as well as just as terrified). Could’ve been a little deeper, but dived in more than many would’ve expected, this love affair is one worth spectating.