THE LOVE STORY IS NEVER THE WHOLE STORY.
A married couple (Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas) have an understanding that she can have ”male friends”, but those who do have sex with her find themselves in danger. Adrian Lyne’s first film in two decades is an adaptation of a novel that needed a Hitchcock, De Palma or Verhoeven. The Fatal Attraction director provides neither lurid sex nor an intriguing portrait of a damaged marriage; we never really buy that there was an attraction to begin with. Never boring, but too obvious, with improbable twists and turns.
2022-U.S. VOD. 115 min. Color. Directed by Adrian Lyne. Screenplay: Zach Helm, Sam Levinson. Novel: Patricia Highsmith. Music: Marco Beltrami. Cast: Ben Affleck (Vic Van Allen), Ana de Armas (Melinda Van Allen), Tracy Letts (Don Wilson), Lil Rel Howery, Dash Mihok, Finn Wittrock.
Trivia: Co-produced by Steven Zaillian. Filmed in 2019; originally intended for theatrical release, but first delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then distributed on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. The novel was previously filmed in France in 1981 and as a German miniseries in 1983.
