#28: FATAL ATTRACTION (1987)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, I can't remember when

BEST SEQUENCE

The ending is somewhat controversial for reasons I'll explain later, but I have to say, it really worked on me, especially when Alex (Glenn Close) appears behind Beth (Anne Archer). "What are you doing here? Why are you here?" gave me chills

BEST LINE

"I'm not gonna be ignored, Dan!"

- It's a simple line, but Glenn Close's delivery is absolutely perfect

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

74%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"A potboiler in the finest sense, Fatal Attraction is a sultry, juicy thriller that's hard to look away from once it gets going."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A married man's one-night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family."

DIRECTOR

Adrian Lyne

MAIN CAST

Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer, Ellen Hamilton, Stuart Pankin

THOUGHTS

• Considered one of the quintessential erotic thrillers, I was struck by how early and how drastically the movie becomes distinctly unerotic. The sexy part of Dan (Michael Douglas) and Alex's (Glenn Close) affair only lasts for the first 30 minutes or so, before things take a very dramatic turn and the drama and tension only escalate for the rest of the movie. Given the circumstances and the moral transgressions at the heart of the movie, some viewers might not find any parts of the film to be erotic at all
• Similarly, a huge part of the intrigue here is the fact that Dan is entirely complicit and not at all innocent in this situation, so opinions may vary on how much of a victim he was vs. how much of this was justified (although once Alex got to the point of kidnapping Dan's daughter, yeah, that's pretty unjustifiable)
• I was strongly reminded of Cape Fear in the sense that Dan knows Alex is dangerous, he knows his family is at risk, but he can't actually do anything about it legally until Alex commits any sort of crime (at which point it's almost too late)
• I must admit, throughout the whole movie I kept assuming that Alex was lying about being pregnant, mostly just based on preconceived notions and how other, similar movies and stories would have played out. But after reading about the movie after the fact, I think it's safe to say that it's official, she really was pregnant. And honestly, even more so than if she was lying, I think that this does add even more complexity to the story
• I mentioned that the ending was controversial. It was a reshoot after test audiences reacted negatively to the original ending, and several people disagreed with the change, including Glenn Close. Like I said, I did find the new ending to be effective, but I can also acknowledge that it's a little hackneyed in a "standard thriller movie climax" way. I mostly just like it for the performances. The original ending is available on Youtube, however, and you can watch it here (although it won't really mean much to you if you haven't seen the movie)
• Finally, you may be surprised (and I'm a little surprised myself) that I've gone through this whole review without mentioning perhaps its most famous scene, the one involving a pet bunny rabbit. It is a really good scene, and the tension is palpable while Beth approaches what she's about to discover, but for me it's ultimately just one more tense moment in a movie that's full of them

Up next: Well gang, it's a big one, and a movie I've been looking forward to reviewing for a very long time. In the words of Lucille Bluth, "Here's some money, go see a Star War". That's right, from 1977, it's Star Wars, the movie that started it all. Plus, stay tuned for a big announcement next time