British director Adrian Lyne hit pop-culture gold with 1983’s Flashdance and 1987’s Fatal Attraction. Although his subsequent films were uneven — Jacob’s Ladder, Indecent Proposal, Lolita — they certainly generated interest and controversy, further cementing his status as a purveyor of erotic thrillers.
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| Despite having long tolerated her nymphomaniacal tendencies, Vic (Ben Affleck) warns Melinda (Ana de Armas) that she has become too brazen and reckless. |
Then Lyne dropped off the map. For two full decades.
He has returned in form with this similarly salacious handling of Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel, adapted fairly faithfully — to a point — by scripters Zach Helm and Sam Levinson.
I’m surprised Lyne waited so long to dip into Highsmith; they’re made for each other. Her morality-bending stories dig deep into the psychological quirks of stone-cold psychopaths; the most famous examples are the methodical impersonator in The Talented Mr. Ripley (and four sequel novels), and the murder-trading playboy in Strangers on a Train. Both were made into superb films.
Lyne’s Deep Water is a long way from superb, but it certainly grabs one’s attention, due mostly to the earthy, sexually charged performance by Ana de Armas. This is breathtaking, fearless, all-in acting; she oozes carnal intensity with every breath, word and gesture.
To casual observers, Vic (Ben Affleck) and Melinda Van Allen (de Armas) are a content, picture-perfect couple living an affluent life made possible by the extreme wealth he earned as a microchip inventor. Now retired, he publishes a quarterly arts magazine, rides about town on his mountain bike, raises snails as a hobby (!), and is totally besotted with their 6-year-old daughter, Trixie (the utterly adorable Grace Jenkins, in an impressive feature debut).
But Vic and Melinda’s marriage actually is one of uneasy convenience: He tolerates her endless string of lovers, as long as she doesn’t break up their family.
Unfortunately, her indiscreet, narcissistic behavior — and an insistence being the center of attention — has made their friends uneasy. They’re also concerned about Vic, particularly because he seems oddly unfazed: even when Melinda — inevitably poured into one of costume designer Heidi Bivens’ barely-there dresses — flirts shamelessly with some guy at the many cocktail parties enjoyed by everybody in their social circle. (Ah, how the other half lives…)
Affleck plays this role well; he excels at quietly stoic characters who nonetheless have something bottled up inside. Indeed, there’s a bit more than resignation and mild-mannered apathy in Vic’s gaze, when he watches, from an upper-story window, as Melinda drapes herself onto her next likely conquest.
(You’ll detect more than a few echoes of the similar role Affleck played in 2014’s Gone Girl, albeit with different plot twists.)
We feel sorry for Vic — Affleck ensures this — particularly when he wincingly notes the degree to which Melinda seems indifferent to their daughter. Even worse, Vic clearly still loves his wife, despite the pain she causes; Melinda, in turn, is fond of him in her own way, and grants him some of her sexual energy. (Damn decent of her, right?)
Although Vic has endured this arrangement for awhile, this story begins as his patience begins to wear thin: perhaps because Melinda has become too brazen, perhaps because the gossip has become too painful.
When word begins to circulate that one of her former lovers — Martin McRae — has gone missing, Vic impulsively tells her newest paramour, Joel (Brendan C. Miller, persuasively dim-witted and gullible), that he killed McRae.
Affleck is terrific during this scene. Vic seems playful and casual, but his smile also suggests malice.
The story circulates throughout town, and everybody naturally assumes Vic made it up to frighten Joel into seeking his pleasures elsewhere.
But we start to wonder. What did happen to McRae? Why has Vic really accepted this state of affairs for so long? Is there more to Melinda than her insatiable sexual appetite?
We’re kept guessing for quite awhile, as Lyne draws teasingly ambiguous performances from Affleck and de Armas.
Unfortunately, the script is a bit sloppy and overcooked in other areas.
Lil Rel Howery and Dash Mihok are oddly superfluous as Vic’s two closest friends, Grant and Jonas. We keep expecting them to display some significant “bro solidarity,” but they do nothing but drop occasional one-liners: mordant comic relief that doesn’t fit the film’s tone.
Vic’s fondness for gastropods is another odd touch, particularly since cinematographer Eigil Bryld delivers so many close-ups of the slimy creatures. Viewers with an awareness of certain snail toxicity may expect a leaf from Agatha Christie, but no; this story never goes there. It’s just an icky, extraneous touch.
On a more serious note, Trixie’s presence is troubling. The bad things adults do with each other is one thing; we accept this, vicariously, as de rigueur in an erotic or film noir thriller. But involving a little girl verges on child abuse, even if she’s “merely” a bystander; this shifts the dynamic into less palatable, real-world territory.
Such discomfort is magnified by young Jenkins’ sweetly ingenuous performance. Trixie is a perceptive child; sheknows something is amiss. Her attempts to articulate her confusion, during chats with her father in between bedtime stories, are quite touching — with endearing work by Affleck and Jenkins — but they belong in an entirely different movie.
Tracy Letts initially is convincing as Don, a recent transplant to the neighborhood, whose suspicions add tantalizing possibilities as events intensify. Unfortunately, Helm and Levinson turn this guy into a contrived buffoon during a dopey climax that is this film’s most significant departure from Highsmith’s novel … and it isn’t a change for the better.
I can imagine the final scene’s ambiguity being dictated by Lyne’s lurid sensibilities, but it’s far from satisfying.
Ultimately, Deep Water is mid-level Lyne: not as trashy as 9-1/2 Weeks or Lolita, but also not as well structured as Fatal Attraction and Unfaithful. Plan accordingly.
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