Review of Fatal Attraction (1987) by Joey D — 30 May 2009

"Fatal Attraction" is a decent thriller with great performances from its actors. I found the plot elements to be very plausible and the suspense to be quite palpable. Glenn Close plays the part of a psychotic woman very well, and Michael Douglas holds up his end of the bargain in most cases. There are several scenes in this movie that really build the suspense, and several that are very shocking.

However, my criticism with this film is with its ending. I found myself literally calling every last thing that was going to happen during the climactic sequence. There are so many blatant cues pointing out each event in the final scene that it is almost insulting to the audience that we wouldn't have been able to figure them out otherwise. For instance, when Douglas' character is going around locking all the doors, you just know that she has already slipped in before he had a chance to lock them. My question is, if there is a crazy, violent woman with a vendetta against you and your family who has already broken into your house earlier in the film, then why wouldn't you already keep the doors locked? It's little things like this that are so convenient to the drama of the plot that make the ending pretty bogus.

"Fatal Attraction" is a decent movie that is fairly solid for the majority of its run-time, but the paint-by-numbers ending really cuts down on its credibility in the thriller genre and as an effective movie. This is a film that had a lot of potential and settled for the easy way out. Pity.