Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: 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.
Review: Directed by Adrian Lyne, the man behind the kind of adult movies you don’t really get to see in cinemas anymore like 9+1/2 Weeks and Unfaithful, returns with the hopes of delivering another psycho-sexual thriller for the ages with Deep Water.
Starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas as a married couple who seem to have it all together, except for the fact Melinda (De Armas) openly cheats on her husband Vic and Vic seems to be a willing participant. I believe the term is cuckolding. Affleck channels a similar energy here to his character from Gone Girl and De Armas is gorgeous and believable as the sexy and self-centered woman in his life. Being a real-life couple at the time of filming, they both easily sell the kind of chemistry needed to make it all work. And I’m sure lots of folks interest in this movie comes from wanting to see them interact, real or imaginary.
And now for the part you’re actually interested in, the sexy bits. While the movie is rated R, it honestly didn’t need it (M would make more sense) and I can totally see people walking away from this one as frustrated as Vic was due to the lack of any raunchy sex scenes. Most of it is implied rather than seen and (typical of these types of films) poor Ana de Armas is the one whose body is put on display. The story itself was also not as interesting as I hoped for, especially considering that author Patricia Highsmith is the same mind behind Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Deep Water spends its first half focusing more on the mind games this couple plays with each other and the middle act kind of sticks us with two people who are deeply unlikeable or, at the very least, selfish as hell. The finale is, well I STILL don’t know how I feel about it, but as of right now it came across as abrupt and semi-ridiculous.
So if you’re a fan of Unfaithful, Gone Girl or the best of them all, Fatal Attraction, and you step into Deep Water looking for more of the same, I don’t think you’re going to walk away happy. Solid performances aside (Lil Rel Howery is always a delight), I don’t see anyone adding this to their list of genre favorites. Here’s hoping the best years of these types of films aren’t behind us but sadly Deep Water isn’t the movie that’s going to be leading the charge for Hollywood studios to deliver more, any time soon.
Score 6 out of 10
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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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