Fatal Attraction

Although let down by a generic resolution, apparently demanded by the producers, Adrian Lyne's film is for the most part a gripping thriller, with two excellent lead performances by Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, as respectively, Dan Gallagher, a "happily" married man whose opportunistic one-night stand turns into a living nightmare and the work colleague who subsequently stalks him.

James Dearden’s script builds nicely, shifting our sympathies between the two leads, the depiction of the spiraling mess having real credibility as it moves from casual dalliance between two apparent consenting adults into full-blown obsession. Douglas and Close both give emotionally and physically intense performances with some blistering sex scenes and enthusuastic domestic violence. 

Notwithstanding, I struggled with the casting of Close as whikst a talented actor she is not particularly good-looking and, in the absence of any other motivation bar her luxurious luxurious late '80s perm, it is hard to accept that Douglas’s character would be particularly interested in having a fling with her. An actress such as Kim Basinger would have been more appropriate. Anne Archer, an actress of whom not a lot was heard of thereafter, strikes a nice balance as the loving and trusting "ball and chain.

FYI:  The film, understandably so, received a good deal of negative response from feminists of the time for depicting a childless career woman as mentally unhinged. Apparently bad reactions from test screenings led nervous producers to the replacement of an ambiguous ending by the stock-standard  plot moves in a dubious salvation of the repentant husband.

 

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