Fatal Attraction (1987)
Country: US
Technical: col 119m
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer
Synopsis:
When a New York businessman indulges in a casual infidelity he lives to regret it.
Review:
Timed at the height of AIDS awareness in America following Rock Hudson's death, this is cynical cinema by numbers at its worst. For much of its length it sustains a character-driven approach which renders the occasional explosion of drama all the more effective, but when it switches mode to horror-thriller towards the end it is a sell-out all the more telling given the prolonged wait for a denouement. The Close character's Diaboliques-style resurrection and violent death simply are not consonant with the humanity with which this capable actress has managed to imbue her thus far: the audience has by now become so enervated by jolting telephone calls that, baying for blood, it is ready only to see her die as a monster. No matter that this ending was later revealed to have been imposed by the studio; the movie stands as a classic example of the growing Eighties trend towards the 'crescendo technique' in film-making, which began in the horror film but soon moved to the action genre.
Country: US
Technical: col 119m
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer
Synopsis:
When a New York businessman indulges in a casual infidelity he lives to regret it.
Review:
Timed at the height of AIDS awareness in America following Rock Hudson's death, this is cynical cinema by numbers at its worst. For much of its length it sustains a character-driven approach which renders the occasional explosion of drama all the more effective, but when it switches mode to horror-thriller towards the end it is a sell-out all the more telling given the prolonged wait for a denouement. The Close character's Diaboliques-style resurrection and violent death simply are not consonant with the humanity with which this capable actress has managed to imbue her thus far: the audience has by now become so enervated by jolting telephone calls that, baying for blood, it is ready only to see her die as a monster. No matter that this ending was later revealed to have been imposed by the studio; the movie stands as a classic example of the growing Eighties trend towards the 'crescendo technique' in film-making, which began in the horror film but soon moved to the action genre.
Country: US
Technical: col 119m
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer
Synopsis:
When a New York businessman indulges in a casual infidelity he lives to regret it.
Review:
Timed at the height of AIDS awareness in America following Rock Hudson's death, this is cynical cinema by numbers at its worst. For much of its length it sustains a character-driven approach which renders the occasional explosion of drama all the more effective, but when it switches mode to horror-thriller towards the end it is a sell-out all the more telling given the prolonged wait for a denouement. The Close character's Diaboliques-style resurrection and violent death simply are not consonant with the humanity with which this capable actress has managed to imbue her thus far: the audience has by now become so enervated by jolting telephone calls that, baying for blood, it is ready only to see her die as a monster. No matter that this ending was later revealed to have been imposed by the studio; the movie stands as a classic example of the growing Eighties trend towards the 'crescendo technique' in film-making, which began in the horror film but soon moved to the action genre.