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FATAL ATTRACTION
Review by Michael Jacobson
Stars:
Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer
Director: Adrian Lyne
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby
Surround
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Studio: Paramount
Features: See Review
Length: 119 Minutes
Release Date: April 16, 2002
“I’m
not gonna be IGNORED, Dan.”
Fatal
Attraction, being
the monster hit it was for Paramount, deserves discussion on two levels:
as a film, and as a social event. I’ll
start with the latter, which still strikes me as curious some 15 years after the
picture’s release.
It
was the movie that seemingly every woman in every man’s life told him he had
to see. I was prodded by no less
than my sister, my mother, and the girl I was seeing in college.
My father was told the same, as was my younger brother, as were many of
my close friends. The women all
viewed Fatal Attraction as a kind of Intimacy Etiquette 101…namely, a
good lesson on why we men should never think we could cheat and get away with
it.
I
don’t know if my father or my brother ever saw the movie, but I did…and
personally, I found it a bit disturbing that some of the women I knew were
pushing the movie in that way. I
readily agree, any man who would cheat on his partner (or vice versa) is a jerk,
and if he happens to be married and with a child, his jerkdom is compounded.
But here was a movie that was so clearly about a woman who was mentally
unbalanced! How did psychosis
suddenly become a sword of justice in our society?
Alex
Forrest (Close) is that woman, and Dan Gallagher (Douglas) is the happy husband
and father who gives in to his libido and engages in a wild but short affair
with her while his wife Beth (Archer) and daughter are away.
He shouldn’t have done it, and frankly, it would have served him right
for the truth to come spilling out and if his misguided deed had cost him the
family he loved so dearly.
But
he doesn’t get off so easily. Though
he never hid the fact that he was married from Alex, she doesn’t seem ready to
let go so easily…a point made vividly clear when Dan tries to end it early on,
and her response is, shall we say, somewhat drastic.
Alex
becomes more and more of an ominous presence in his life.
What starts out as phone calls and unexpected visits turns more and more
into a dangerous game of manipulation and fear.
Dan soon finds himself having to try and protect his family from much
more than just the truth.
For
director Adrian Lyne, Fatal Attraction is a triumph of a thriller up to a
certain point, and not really his fault that it falters at the end.
This disc includes the famed original ending as a feature…the ending
that proved a failure with the original test audiences.
Sometimes you have to let a director make his picture, and not let even
paying patrons dictate the path it takes. As
a result, a new ending was shot and released, and it is one of the most
ridiculous things I’ve ever seen, turning an intelligently crafted and
character driven thriller into a cheap and clichéd slasher picture in just a
few minutes’ time. It’s so bad, it dampens everything great that came before.
Not even Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announcing the
contraction of the league two days after the highest rated World Series in a
decade was a more damaging dénouement.
And
there really is a lot to like about the movie up to that point.
It’s extremely well acted, for one thing.
Michael Douglas is in top form as the story’s Everyman…we see and
feel the unfolding events through his eyes, and feel like there but for the
grace of God go us. Anne Archer is superb as Beth, the innocent victim who
doesn’t know the size of the shoe about to drop.
And Glenn Close took what was a career bending turn as Alex, bringing a
side of her talent to the screen that audiences hadn’t seen before…her Oscar
nomination was very deserving.
The
script is impeccable, too, IF you count it with the original ending.
Not only is it intelligent and thoughtful with a lot of faith in its
characters, but as it was, it was extremely well rounded and cyclical, and
brings everything to a smart and more acceptable conclusion, if not exactly the
more exciting one.
And
Adrian Lyne’s terrific sense of style makes it a taut thriller from start to
almost finish. Everything from the
look to the sound instill the viewers with a sense of dread.
A ringing phone becomes a harbinger of horrors.
A darkened passageway makes us cringe in anticipation.
The way the camera moves increases tension, and the editing in at least
two scenes are Hitchcockian in approach: the
one where Beth checks the soup pot, and the one where she searches for her
missing daughter.
It’s
for these reasons, I’m convinced, that Fatal Attraction became the
blockbuster that it was. Audiences
saw it again and again. Time magazine
even ran a cover story with Douglas and Close proclaiming the thriller was back.
Maybe even a few men DID get the message about the dangers of cheating,
even though a mentally ill woman is hardly a veritable champion for the wronged.
But
for the producers to insist on a more crowd-pleasing ending became a black mark
on everyone involved, from the actors to the writer, to Adrian Lyne in
particular. My advice?
Watch the film until just after Dan leaves Alex’s apartment for the
last time and then meets with the
police, then go to the features menu and watch the original finish.
If you do that, raise my rating by a full star.
Video
**1/2
The
80s remain the most problematic period for quality DVD offerings, and though
Paramount serves up an anamorphic transfer here, Fatal Attraction is not
an exception. It’s far from
unwatchable, to be sure, but like most other movies from the decade, it shows
some of the earliest signs of negative problems, with probably a long way off
before any kind of restoration work might be considered.
Image detail ranges from quite good to a tad soft.
Darker images become a bit of a wash, with no detail and lack of clear
lines for definition. Colors appear
just a shade faded all the way through, with none really approaching normally
bright levels or tones. A few
specks and spots are visible here and there.
As stated, this is by no means a disc whose problems are
distracting…merely noteworthy.
Audio
***
The
5.1 audio serves a bit better. There
are strong moments of dynamic range in key sequences, and I was impressed by how
well they played out. The dialogue
is very clean and clear sounding, with no distracting noise or interference.
Generally, the rear stage offers a bit of reverb to stronger sounds and
to Maurice Jarre’s music, which helps open up the listening experience a
little more. All in all, a very good effort.
Features
****
This
is a nicely packaged Special Collector’s Edition disc from Paramount, starting
with a running commentary from Adrian Lyne.
It’s a bit sparse every now and then, but he offers up some good detail
overall, including working with the actors, his thoughts on the story, and even
a bit on the alternate ending. There
are also three featurettes including the half hour “Forever Fatal”, which
features brand new interviews with Lyne, Douglas, Close, Archer, the producers
and more, plus two shorter ones on the look and design of the film, and on the
social phenomenon it became. Rounding
out is the alternate ending with introduction by Lyne, a video of rehearsal
footage with Douglas and Close, and the trailer.
Summary: