Review of Fatal Attraction (1987) by Shawn W — 14 Aug 2016

Fatal Attraction is a thriller directed by Adrian Lyne in 1987 which focuses on themes of infidelity and responsibility. It stars Michael Douglas and Glenn Close and become one of the most well known movies of both actors' careers.

Michael Douglas plays Dan Gallagher an attorney who lives with his wife, daughter, and dog in New York. At a business event, Dan meets Alex Forrest, played by Glenn Close, who is a publishing editor. Soon after, Dan's wife and daughter have a weekend away and Dan has an affair with Alex. Regretting his mistake, Dan tries to end the relationship, but he quickly learns that he cannot undo his actions that easily, and Alex may be more dangerous than he thought.

Fatal Attraction is an excellent slow-burn thrill ride. The first half hour is quite slow, but the twists from that point onwards keep the plot cranking along at an excellent pace. The more obsessed and insistent that Alex becomes with Dan the more pressure you can feel within the film, almost like a suffocation feeling. The film emphasises this with constant phone calls from her character, at Dan's work and home, demonstrating her persistence. I interpreted Alex's character to be representative of Dan's guilt from the affair, and that, even though he wanted to stop seeing her, his guilt was always there, getting worse and worse, building throughout the movie. Throughout the film, Dan makes multiple efforts to disconnect himself from Alex, but she always strikes back in ways that imperil his marriage and his life. The film has excellent dialogue between the two main characters as things increase in intensity. There are a few parallels to the opera Madame Butterfly which are mentioned throughout the film.

The film is constructed very tightly. Once the film moves into its second act the scenes feel like they have certain urgency to them, and there is some quite well done camera work that captures a lot of Dan's struggles to keep his secrets hidden. Often the camera will fixate on one thing that is important to Dan and the audience, but Dan's wife, Anne, does not know about. This brings a lot of tension and dramatic irony to the visuals.

The acting is incredibly well done, too. Michael Douglas is wonderful to watch, and would later be typecast into sort of weak and fallible roles due to this movie. Glenn Close is also wonderful, and the two actors share engage in a sort of acting tug of war as they oppose each other. Glenn Close pushes her acting to be both believable and exaggeratedly menacing.

Fatal Attraction is a simple but effective film. Once the film gets going it is very hard to look away. The brilliant acting pits these two characters against each other, and the firm direction keeps the film building towards a spectacular final act.