Rating: 
Summary: A Fatal Film
Review: The 1987 thriller gripped audiences with a superb, believably frightening plot about obscession. Michael Douglas plays Dan Gallegher, a yuppy lawyer from Manhattan who is happily married to his wife played by Anne Archer and their little daughter. After they meet at an office party, Alex (Glenn Close) and Dan become sexually attracted to one another. During a weekend, they engage in a steamy extra marital affair. But afterward, Dan makes it clear to Alex he does not want a relationship. He turns his attention back to his priorities- his job, his family. Kudos to Glen Close for a knock-out performance as the obscessed Alex. From then on, she does everything she can to get Dan back. Phone calls incessantly ringing at his house, attempted suicide, abduction of his young daughter, and towards the end an attempt to kill off his own wife. This film is very graphic, portraying internal violence quite vividly and communicating the idea that an affair can become a nightmare, especially with a maladjusted partner. Maybe it's best not to have an affair at all! When this film was released, it was one of the first to deal with such intense situations. Many other "thrillers" about fatal attraction would appear in the years to come, such as "Basic Instinct" in 1992 and also starring Michael Douglas, and "Disclosure" also with Michael Douglas (why does Michael Douglas have the habit of co-starring with really dangerous women ?) If you are into femme fatale films, this is the one to have and to add to your collection of steamy but dangerous films about obscession and.....fatal attraction.
Rating:
Summary: A "Boiling Hot" Classic Thriller!
Review: Michael Douglas plays Dan Gallagher, a New York attorney who is happily married and has a 6-year-old daughter. But one day while his wife and daughter are away for the weekend he is seduced by a sexy co-worker, Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) at a business meeting. The two have a steamy, romantic weekend affair. But when his wife returns, Dan tries to abruptly end the affair. This ignites a flame inside of Alex that leads to jealousy, suicide attempts, and psychosis. The gore and blood in this movie was a bit high for a romance/drama thriller. Especially the wrist slashing scene, the boiling pot scene, and the butcher knife scene where Alex terrorizes and almost kills Dan's wife.
Rating: 
Summary: "I'm Not Going To Be IGNORED."
Review: Released in the "every-man-for-himself" 1980s, "Fatal Attraction" was more than a box office hit; it also made a strong (if overly extreme) case against extramarital affairs. Many married men have trysts without ever getting caught, but for those who aren't so lucky, the price tag is far greater than anything they could ever imagine. Just ask Dan (Michael Douglas), a successful Manhattan lawyer who crosses paths with Alex (Glenn Close, who has this movie to thank for her career) and stupidly has an affair with her while his family is out of town. On the surface, Alex seems like a perfect catch: she's smart, independent, professional, and reasonably attractive. But just a few minutes into the film we learn that she's a total bizarro and holds on to Dan with the tenacity of a pit bull. When his family returns to town, he tactfully tells her that the affair is over, but Alex ain't having any of it. Like that car salesman you always hated, she won't take "no" for an answer. "I'm not going to be IGNORED," she says to Dan in a tone so acid it almost burns through the screen. Her instability, thanks to a creepy performance by Close, slowly escalates and paves the way for drama including stalking, late night phone calls, kidnapping, and a boiling pot of rabbit stew (don't ask, just watch the film). Critics to this day still sniff at director Adrian Lyne for allegedly filming what they felt amounted to little more than a trashy, exploitative soap opera. So what? The film was believable (if predictable), had decent performances, and had me hooked to the screen. If there's anything to nitpick at, it's the DVD released by Paramount. Quite simply, the picture looks terrible. The presentation looks washed out, the colors are blah, and we see print flaws (spots and scratches) throughout the film. However, we do get some really cool features such as retrospective interviews and documentaries with a director's commentary. Despite the disappointing quality of the picture, "Fatal Attraction" is definitely worth a purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Damn Gory Movie - Flashy & Stupid
Review: Very typical of movies from the 1980's. Materialism, Sex, Violence, Gore, really dull dialogue lines (which means they have to make up for it with all the gore and sex and violence), and to top it all off, a strong woman character villain (typical of the genre of feminist backlash prevelant in the 1980's - thank you Susan Fauldi, author of Backlash). I had heard about the rabit scene from the two people who recommended it but was not impressed when I did see it. The wrist slashing scene was pretty good; the ending, with her bloated choked body floating in the water and that fako bullet hole in the end was also tasteless. I just don't see someone going that far. No good probing on the questions of love or adultury or marriage as social contract vs passion. THis is truly for audiences of the 1980's; I'll stick with more stuff out of the 1970's - at least we saw some degree of taste and plot and character dev. back then. None of that in this flick.
Rating: 
Summary: A good character study of the Masculine Dandy
Review: Glen Close plays a character that is strangely masculine. Combined with her rather unusual appearance, this makes the movie an interesting study for what Robert Greene calls the "Masculine Dandy." However, as a movie, it's a simple morality warning about extra-marital affairs.
Rating:
Summary: Suspensful and intense, but...
Review: "Fatal Attraction" is a great movie to watch if you enjoy suspensful, intense films about compulsive psychos that totally freak you out. It's a really fun movie to watch, but there is one major, major problem. The film is too much like "Play Misty For Me", a popular movie from 1971 about similar subjects (a man with a girlfriend sleeps with another woman who is actually a total psychotic who believes she "loves" him). This film even has a scene that is either homage to "Play Misty For Me" or down-right copying it (when Glenn Close slits her wrist). Correct me if I'm wrong, but Close DID cut her wrist in this film, right? And that same thing happened in "Play Misty For Me". Close's character is almost exactly the same as the woman psycho in the 71 film. There are just enough differences to make it a slightly different movie, and I believe it is pure entertainment to watch. Very suspenseful, very intense, great acting, and pretty darn scary. I think we all can learn a valuable lesson from this film about the consequences of infidelities.
Rating: 
Summary: THE PSYCHO & THE SINNER: Infidelity On The Big Screen
Review: This is the flick that had every executive in America rethinking his extramarital fling with the resident office floozy. One wonders what Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas)was thinking when he traded in his loyal and sexy wife (Ann Archer) for freakishly unattractive and mentally twisted Alex Forrester (Glenn Close). Clearly sex clouds the brain and robs it of all reasoning and judgment. By now everyone knows how it all comes out in the end. Director Adrian Lyne interjected a great deal of cliche into the proceedings, not the least of which is the overwrought, over done ending. Glenn Close is so over the top it hurts (especially the rabbit) while Michael Douglas is pretty frenetic in his shift from moments of total aloofness buffeted by instances of sheer psycho rage. Perhaps Dan and Alex weren't such a bad fit after all.
Paramount has made "Fatal Attraction" available as a 'special edition' but don't be fooled. The term 'special' is relative to executives at Paramount. This disc looks terrible. Colors are muddy, faded and, in some cases, bleed. Contrast levels are pathetically low. The entire print is riddled with dirt, undistinguished black levels, fine detail shimmering and edge enhancement. Whites register as a garish yellow and flesh tones are inconsistant, either orangy or pink. Digital noise is detected throughout, though an over kill of the noise reduction equipment used in mastering this DVD has resulted in often soft, slightly out of focus images. The audio has been remixed to 5.1 but don't let that fool you either. The mix is virtually the same as the 2.0 version also included on the disc. There are three featurettes presented, the best being "Forever Fatal" that is quite informative. There's also some screen test footage and Adrian Lyne's original ending, that the studio was convinced would sink the movie - hence Lyne's re-editing with Close and Archer and that bathtub scene that continues to freak me out.
Overall, Paramount really has nothing to brag about with this disc. Yes it's anamorphic and widescreen but aside from that, there's precious little else to recommend the quality, or lack thereof, of the main feature. And while I'm not a big fan of the movie, I can't deny that there was a great resonnence throughout the land of corporate America, during the greed-driven 80's, for every philanderer who suddenly found himself leaving the theater with his eyes wide open.
Rating:
Summary: Picture Perfect
Review: FATAL ATTRACTION was more than a box-office smash; it was a cultural phenomenon. This story of an extramarital fling that turns into a nightmare begins as a well-crafted psychological thriller but degenerates into a misogynistic thrill-fest in its closing moments. Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) is a Manhattan lawyer with a gorgeous wife (Anne Archer) and a six-year-old daughter. When he first meets Alex (Glenn Close), he is intrigued, but unavailable. On another weekend, though, a chance meeting brings Dan and Alex together for a passionate two-night stand in her apartment. When Dan tries to say his final goodbye and return to his family, he gets the first hint that Alex is not entirely rational and has become obsessed with him. That obsession soon turns life into an escalating nightmare for Dan and his family. Screenwriter James Dearden has created a set of initially believable characters, placed them in a familiar situation, and then drastically upped the stakes. Unfortunately, motivations and psychological concerns are thrown out the window in the final reel. The blame for this doesn't rest entirely with Dearden or director Adrian Lyne; the producers tested the original ending (Alex commits suicide, but not before implicating Dan as her murderer) and preview audiences found it less than satisfying. The thrill-a-minute conclusion was then shot and substituted. Notwithstanding the ending, the performances are excellent. Playing against type, Close is overtly libidinous, while at the same time making her obsession and slide into madness convincing and pathetic. Douglas also gives a performance of reasonable depth, and Archer does a nice turn as his implicitly frigid but alluring wife.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, but does it have to be so offensive?
Review: You won't find a more anti-feminist movie in the 1980s than this one: according to screenwriter James Deardon, feminism is the enemy and tough-talking women are secretly evil psychopaths out to boil your rabbit. Michael Douglas plays the naturally hapless married man who is left alone for the weekend by his beautiful and ever-so-patient wife (Anne Archer). While his wife is away, he meets Alex (Glenn Close), they tryst at her apartment, spend a weekend together and then go their separate ways. Trouble is, she doesn't want to let him go back to his wife, opting instead to become a hideous sham of a villain who is never really evil, just criminally insecure. No one ever forces Mike to face the fact that he has cheated on his wife and that he has to face the responsibility for not only sleeping with Alex but also taking her on picnics and frolicking with her in the park (he even brought the family dog) and then deciding that it was only casual because he wanted it to be so. As one of my good friends once so brilliantly put it, don't participate in the montage unless you're willing to stick around for the long run. Furthermore, no one ever forces Deardon to take responsibility for using the determined, self-confident woman as a template for the most unspeakable evil (not to mention an embarassing witch who screams like a banshee and brandishes a huge knife like a slasher-movie villain). On the upside, the movie is slick and well edited, featuring a great image-breaking performance by Close that almost convinces you that the movie is worth taking seriously.
Rating:
Summary: Two MAJOR flaws with this movie:
Review: The first flaw: the ending (which, as many people know, was not the original ending but was substituted after test audiences panned the first ending). ...
The second flaw: Asking me to believe that a man married to Anne Archer would have an affair with Glenn Close, one of the least sexy actresses of all time, is asking too much. I could not suspend my disbelief to that extent.
|
