Fatal Attraction (1987)
Michael Douglas made two films in 1987 that hit a nerve and
captured the prevailing respective cultural sentiments of
"Greed is good" and "Sex is dangerous".
Wall Street may have won him an Oscar but Fatal
Attraction stuck in the public consciousness, cleaning up at
the box-office, landing on the front cover of Time and
giving birth to the term "bunny boiler".
In Lyne's jarring thriller, Douglas plays Dan, a married New
York attorney who has a fling with Alex (Glenn Close), a sexy
colleague. He cools and wants out, trying to let her down gently,
but Alex "will not be ignored" and her behaviour soon
turns deadly.
Although by the overblown climax Alex has descended into
psycho-bitch territory, the movie is anchored by Close's portrayal
of her as a complex, damaged woman. She deservedly received an
Oscar nomination, as did Anne Archer as Beth, who rises to the
occasion and defends her family against the deranged Alex.
Motivation is a flaw in an otherwise excellent script. The
filmmakers try to ratchet up the tension by making Dan a loving
husband in an effort to make us believe infidelity's nasty
consequences could happen to anyone. They needn't have bothered -
Lyne's claustrophobic camera and stunning visuals back up a
white-knuckle ride of a plot.
Fatal Attraction had much the same effect on casual sex
as Jaws did on swimming in the 70s. It became a social
phenomenon, tapping into 80s sexual paranoia, outraging feminists
and making Close the most hated woman in America.
The ending which was originally shot for the movie left test
audiences baying for blood. Close fought to retain it but, despite
the schlocky "she's dead . . . no, she's not!" device
used in the final cut, the studio made the right choice.
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