Deep Water (2022)
Directed by Adrian Lyne
A well-to-do husband who allows his wife to have affairs in order to avoid a divorce becomes a prime suspect in the disappearance of her lovers.
41 connections found
View:
41 films that influenced Deep Water
What critics say influenced Deep Water
Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat may have codified onscreen sex (not to mention the “erotic thriller” template) for normies in 1981, but Lyne’s Flashdance , 9 ½ Weeks , and Fatal Attraction were important cultural flash points that not only attracted audiences in droves but inspired a host of imitators of their grown-up content and muscular visual language.
It’s possible, while streaming “Deep Water,” to feel a stab of nostalgia for the big-screen heyday of the Hollywood erotic thriller, a genre to which Lyne and several others — the Lawrence Kasdan of “Body Heat” and the Paul Verhoeven of “Basic Instinct” among them — made indelibly sweaty contributions in the ’80s and ’90s.
The would-be mastermind who’s nowhere as smart as he thinks he is has long been a staple of the noir murder mystery, with Double Indemnity and Body Heat being classics of the genre.
Lyne, who’s also directed films like 9 ½ Weeks , Fatal Attraction , and Indecent Proposal , is known for his sexy stories, and there was an expectation that this film would be in the same vein.
Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat may have codified onscreen sex (not to mention the “erotic thriller” template) for normies in 1981, but Lyne’s Flashdance , 9 ½ Weeks , and Fatal Attraction were important cultural flash points that not only attracted audiences in droves but inspired a host of imitators of their grown-up content and muscular visual language.
The lack of graphic intimacy between Vic and Melinda feels like a surprising artistic direction from Lyne after Unfaithful , 9½ Weeks , and Fatal Attraction , and combined with the lacklustre screenplay, it prevents audiences from believing them as a couple.
Lyne’s most famous film, Fatal Attraction (1987), wrote the book on the modern sexual thriller, and his last film, Unfaithful (2002), continued familiar themes of infidelity and murderous female sexuality.
Also, “Deep Water” marks a return to sexy noir material for Adrian Lyne, who directed “9 ½ Weeks,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Lolita” and “Unfaithful” but hasn’t made a film in 20 years.
In the 1990s and early 2000s the English director Adrian Lyne was one of the masters of the erotic thriller, the craftsman behind such suspenseful yet deeply silly entertainments as 9½ Weeks , Fatal Attraction , Indecent Proposal , and Unfaithful .
Lyne, who’s also directed films like 9 ½ Weeks , Fatal Attraction , and Indecent Proposal , is known for his sexy stories, and there was an expectation that this film would be in the same vein.
Also, “Deep Water” marks a return to sexy noir material for Adrian Lyne, who directed “9 ½ Weeks,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Lolita” and “Unfaithful” but hasn’t made a film in 20 years.
It’s been 20 years since “Unfaithful” (2002), the last movie Adrian Lyne directed, and almost 30 since any of his movies has been a big deal (“Indecent Proposal,” 1993).
In the 1990s and early 2000s the English director Adrian Lyne was one of the masters of the erotic thriller, the craftsman behind such suspenseful yet deeply silly entertainments as 9½ Weeks , Fatal Attraction , Indecent Proposal , and Unfaithful .
Director Adrian Lyne has a reputation as the master of sexy mind games with such films as “Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Unfaithful” and “9½ Weeks.”
First published in 1957, acclaimed author Patricia Highsmith’s novel “Deep Water” has been adapted for the screen by “Fatal Attraction” and “Indecent Proposal” director Adrian Lyne.
It’s two decades now since the now octagenarian Lyne last helmed a feature (2002’s similarly themed Unfaithful ), but this seems like it could have been made then.
Lyne’s most famous film, Fatal Attraction (1987), wrote the book on the modern sexual thriller, and his last film, Unfaithful (2002), continued familiar themes of infidelity and murderous female sexuality.
Also, “Deep Water” marks a return to sexy noir material for Adrian Lyne, who directed “9 ½ Weeks,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Lolita” and “Unfaithful” but hasn’t made a film in 20 years.
It’s been 20 years since “Unfaithful” (2002), the last movie Adrian Lyne directed, and almost 30 since any of his movies has been a big deal (“Indecent Proposal,” 1993).
Never mind that the release of the Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas thriller Deep Water — director Adrian Lyne’s first movie since Unfaithful 20 years ago — was repeatedly delayed.
In the 1990s and early 2000s the English director Adrian Lyne was one of the masters of the erotic thriller, the craftsman behind such suspenseful yet deeply silly entertainments as 9½ Weeks , Fatal Attraction , Indecent Proposal , and Unfaithful .
The lack of graphic intimacy between Vic and Melinda feels like a surprising artistic direction from Lyne after Unfaithful , 9½ Weeks , and Fatal Attraction , and combined with the lacklustre screenplay, it prevents audiences from believing them as a couple.
In the 1990s and early 2000s the English director Adrian Lyne was one of the masters of the erotic thriller, the craftsman behind such suspenseful yet deeply silly entertainments as 9½ Weeks , Fatal Attraction , Indecent Proposal , and Unfaithful .
Director Adrian Lyne has a reputation as the master of sexy mind games with such films as “Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Unfaithful” and “9½ Weeks.”
Hard to believe it’s been 20 years since director Adrian Lyne, the hand behind such provocative, erotic thrillers as “Fatal Attraction” (1987), “9½ Weeks” (1986) and “Indecent Proposal” (1993), has helmed a film.
It's made by one of the form's masters, Adrian Lyne, but the touch he had with "9½ Weeks," "Fatal Attraction" and "Indecent Proposal" is long gone, and "Deep Water" winds up drowning in its own silliness.
Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name — about a husband and wife, the lovers she takes, and the fallout of a lie about murdering her last paramour — it is exactly the type of story that the filmmaker behind 9½ Weeks , Indecent Proposal and Lolita would be suited to.
Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat may have codified onscreen sex (not to mention the “erotic thriller” template) for normies in 1981, but Lyne’s Flashdance , 9 ½ Weeks , and Fatal Attraction were important cultural flash points that not only attracted audiences in droves but inspired a host of imitators of their grown-up content and muscular visual language.
Other Lyne big deals have been “Flashdance” (1983) and “Fatal Attraction” (1987).
Adrian Lyne has made some bangers: Flashdance (1983), 9 ½ Weeks (1986), Fatal Attraction (1987), Indecent Proposal (1993), and more.
The “Flashdance” and “Fatal Attraction” helmer has a knack for sexually charged, low-light whatsits of this nature — and he hasn’t directed a feature in 20 years, so he seems ready to get back in the sandbox and play.
Vic and Mel share some brief interactions on that front, all aborted prematurely, and we catch glimpses of her in the tub or with her boy toys, but in general it’s his tamest film since 1980’s Foxes .
He didn’t make a lot of movies, but from “Foxes” and “Flashdance” to “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Unfaithful,” his work always grabbed attention and often titillated its way into the national conversation.
Melinda disrupts the quiet suburban companionate love agreements of these well-off couples--she is Alex from Fatal Attraction , Alex from Flashdance , Annie from Foxes , or Elizabeth (to a point) from 9 ½ Weeks , forced into a role she can't help but reject: that of doting wife and loving mother.
Also, “Deep Water” marks a return to sexy noir material for Adrian Lyne, who directed “9 ½ Weeks,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Lolita” and “Unfaithful” but hasn’t made a film in 20 years.
Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name — about a husband and wife, the lovers she takes, and the fallout of a lie about murdering her last paramour — it is exactly the type of story that the filmmaker behind 9½ Weeks , Indecent Proposal and Lolita would be suited to.
British filmmaker Adrian Lyne made a name for himself in the ’80s and ’90s thanks to lurid thrillers (“Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Lolita”) that put the “sexually” in “sexually-charged” and “sexual taboo.”
Then he unleashed a string of hits where women were either docile objects or vile harpies: 9½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, Lolita, Unfaithful.
(He also made the 1997 version of Lolita that, quite frankly, I never had the guts to watch.
9 1/2 Weeks (1986), Fatal Attraction (1987), Indecent Proposal (1993), Lolita (1997), and Unfaithful (2002) are some of the genre’s most memorable entries leading Lyne’s directorial career to become synonymous with all things sexy, stylish, and erotically charged.
More importantly, the return to movie-making by director Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, 9 1/2 Weeks, Jacob’s Ladder), Deep Water) finds ways to be both highly watchable and laughably awful, with its story of well-off husband Vic (Ben Affleck) and his beautiful wife Melinda (Ana de Armas), whose affairs he tolerates in order to avoid divorce.
After a twenty year absence from directing, the 81-year-old Adrian Lyne (“Jacob’s Ladder”/”Unfaithful”), a filmmaker known for doing the erotic, returns with this sexual thriller.
(The unfortunate side effect being that too many people have forgotten about his brief detour into a different genre all together with 1990’s still-excellent Jacob’s Ladder .)
I find it hard to believe that this is made by the same guy who directed Flashdance and Jacob’s Ladder , two films that understood just how to sell sexy smokiness.
He didn’t make a lot of movies, but from “Foxes” and “Flashdance” to “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Unfaithful,” his work always grabbed attention and often titillated its way into the national conversation.
With the exception of Jacob’s Ladder (1990), Lyne’s films have all centered on female sexuality in some way, shape or form, and often that sexuality is weaponized, sometimes with fatal consequences.
Lyne’s latest evokes David Cronenberg’s Crash and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread , the latter less explicit than the former, but the key to unlocking both is whether or not you can accept that this dynamic, dysfunctional, fucked-up or distasteful as it may be, works for these characters .
No, they're for brooding, and Vic's hobby of snail care is meant to give him a dark, mysterious side, but all it ends up drawing is parallels to Willem Dafoe's character's fondness for leeches in "Speed 2: Cruise Control."
Advertisement
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut .
Going in with this knowledge feels like a pleasing secret after the fact: the equivalent of watching Eyes Wide Shut ’s scenes of sexual dislocation knowing that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were about to divorce, a sort of unwanted tabloid interference lurking in your subconscious.
That Affleck and Armas briefly dated following the filming of "Deep Water" makes the "Eyes Wide Shut" comparisons inevitable; that this is another film mis-marketed as an erotic thriller, despite being a darker comedy about male sexual insecurity, only heightens the similarities.
With its troubled marriage and threatened masculinity of its main character, it’s clear the director wanted to make his answer to Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut .
It’s hardly Eyes Wide Shut or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? but the central dynamic makes sense.
"Deep Water" is an epic fail when compared to the classic 1957 novel by the late, great Patricia Highsmith, who wrote "Strangers On a Train," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and other crime fiction that tackled obsession with an existential dread that evoked -- no kidding -- Dostoevsky.
Deep Water is based on the 1957 novel by Patricia Highsmith, whose work has inspired an entire shelf of classic films, including Strangers on a Train , The Talented Mr. Ripley , The American Friend , Purple Noon , Carol , and others.
“Deep Water” is based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, a writer (“The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Strangers on a Train,””The Two Faces of January”) right up Lynne’s dark and sordid alley.
But no one is getting nominated for this one, which is the first english language screen adaptation of mystery writer Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel, a much lesser work than other classics of hers that made it to the movies including The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train.
Novels by the brilliant Patricia Highsmith have led to some equally brilliant films—Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train” and Anthony Minghella’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (along with René Clément’s earlier French version of that book, “Purple Noon”)—are notable examples.
The remarkably shallow and eventually pointless film lacks a boiled bunny and is based on a 1957 novel of the same name by high priestess of perverse murderers Patricia Highsmith (“Strangers on a Train,” the Tom Ripley novels).
Though based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, and directed by the man who gave us Fatal Attraction and 9 ½ Weeks , Deep Water plays like a sexy, macabre Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , an intense dialogue between an unhappily married couple that’s occasionally disrupted by outsiders.
It’s hardly Eyes Wide Shut or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? but the central dynamic makes sense.
Some have even compared it to the infamous 2012 horror "The Devil Inside," which ended with an abrupt fade to black, and text onscreen telling audiences to visit a website to see the film's ending.
Advertisement
There’s more to the story: a startling rumor, a couple of parties, a nosy neighbor (a typically sharp Tracy Letts), a few unfortunate “accidents” and a swimming pool that glows as ominously as the one in “La Piscine,” Jacques Deray’s 1969 classic of sex, deceit and murder.
Is he as crestfallen as the cuckold played by William H. Macy, in “Boogie Nights” (1997)?
The way Ana de Armas says it, it’s a completely valid excuse to subject Ben Affleck to the most unapologetic cuckery an actor has had to endure on screen since William H. Macy in “Boogie Nights.”
Lyne’s latest evokes David Cronenberg’s Crash and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread , the latter less explicit than the former, but the key to unlocking both is whether or not you can accept that this dynamic, dysfunctional, fucked-up or distasteful as it may be, works for these characters .