Fatal Attraction (1987)

The outline for this movie is almost a duplicate of Play Misty for Me. It starts with a one night stand with no strings attached, and turned into the same Fatal Attraction, even down to the crazed girl coming face to face with the real love of the male's life and the attack. The differences are there, too. The male in this case is married, while the other is just trying for a committed relationship. They have different jobs, live on the opposite coast, etc. This movie was MUCH better done than Play Misty, and they are many years apart so most people probably don't even see the similarities.

... so says Tom Hanks in 1993's "Sleepless in Seattle" to his son in reference to this movie and comparing its outcome to a strange woman who has been writing the widower (Hanks) as a result of him appearing on a radio show. But that's another movie.The point is, its lesson was still easily recognizable in popular culture six years after it was made. What looks like an easy lay with a beautiful single woman can easily turn into an object lesson on Murphy's law. Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) is a successful NYC attorney, and on a weekend when his wife and daughter are away from home at his in-laws' house, he has a work meeting that includes Alex Forrest (Glenn Close), an editor for a publishing company. This leads to a drink at a bar, and that leads to a passionate one night stand that turns into a two night stand when Alex attempts suicide when Dan tries to leave.Dan thinks it's over. Alex has seemed to come to her senses. But then she tells him she is pregnant, and no she is having this baby because she is 36 and it may be her last chance. When Dan insists he is not leaving his wife for her, that he does not love her - well, let's just say that the opposite of love is not hate it's indifference, and Alex at first stalks Dan and gradually turns up the heat until his entire family is at risk. The suspense builds until the harrowing end.The thing is, Dan always loved his wife, subtly played by Ann Archer. She is beautiful, supportive, and he still has passion for her. They have a little girl and are a very happy family. But he just could not say no to what looked like a one night adventure that nobody need ever know about that turns into a nightmare.There is more to the film than the cautionary "Don't cheat on your wife" message. I think it's because Glenn Close does such a fantastic job playing Alex. There's something about her portrayal that, to me, paints Alex as ultimately powerful, not just outright insane. Until the end she mostly dominates what happens to Michael Douglas' character's life. I think this one has aged well and would still recommend it.

(Originally reviewed: 16/02/2017) After finally getting a chance to see this film for the first time; I must say I am slightly underwhelmed that's it's not as good as I was hoping for; but nonetheless I think it's a well-acted, effective if flawed pseudosexual thriller. The performances are very good; Michael Douglas (Dan) is convincing in the main role which I expect from an actor of his skill, and Glenn Close (Alex) gives a crazy, rather effective performance as the out of control stalker; also impressive is Anne Archer (Beth) who plays the unknowing, well-grounded wife. The performances all fit nicely and everyone does there best, but out of all these performances the stand-out is Douglas who manages to effortlessly deliver a superbly believable performance and show fear, care and relief when it's most needed.I have seen Basic Instinct, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and many other films like this beforehand so I pretty much found it rather predictable and obvious but that is not the problem that underwhelms the picture for me, as I am aware this was released long before the titles mentioned. The plot in the second half is what bothers me; I cannot believe that it was so simple for Alex (Close) to sneak into their house, not once but twice; and I'm sure that when she kills the rabbit, they would call the police but no, they don't even take action the legal way; Douglas sneaks off to confront her and we all know it's going to make her even more crazed, in which there is a fight and he doesn't kill her and she then tries to stab him when his back is turned, now I can't understand why he was going there to not end it but just too get her more nutty and riled up; but I'm sure as well there's not one person that didn't think she would try and stab Douglas's character as soon as he turned his back; which is predictable and clichéd whether it's the first of its kind or not.The first hour or so is fairly solid but as soon as it unravels it stops itself from being a truly great thriller; especially unbelievable moments like when Close's character takes Dan and Beth's daughter out of school, now why on earth would the school allow that to happen without their consent; seems rather strange to me and then there's an extremely predictable crash as Beth is not looking at the road and later on during its climax Alex manages to break into their house again unnoticed and end up holding Douglas's wife at knifepoint in the bathroom; in which Douglas runs in sounding like Tarzan to save the day in which the oldest trick in the book kicks in; the psycho who will not just die despite being drowned or stabbed and so forth; but this is no horror film; this is a thriller and it's meant to be somewhat believable; but I did not buy its third act for one minute. Though I sound negative; I did enjoy Fatal Attraction; it has a good original score, some decent thrills, some well filmed sex scenes and great performances. It may not be a great thriller but it's an effective b-movie thriller with some truly good moments and well written dialogue; so it's all in all, worth seeing.

Micheal Douglas (With the possible exception of his academy award winning turn as Gordon Gekko) tends to play nice guys who do some shady things. In this case he's Dan Gallagher, living the perfect 80s lifestyle with his wife and kid, they are about to leave the city and move to a suburb to raise a family, but at a party, he meets Alex, played by Glen Close. Adrian Lyne and his actors do a good job of showing us the instant attraction between the two without saying much. Nothing happens, but a second encounter puts all the cards on the table for what seems like a no strings attached bed room dance, and Dan is all like, "why not, my wife and kid are out of the city looking at houses, I can do this. So he gives her the passion right on the kitchen counter". So they had fun while his wife is away, no big deal, now we can go back to our regular lives right? Right? Unfortunately for Dan, this is not a Woody Allen movie, the consequences for stepping out on your wife don't end in a comedic folly. As they are having fun, he notices slowly what he just gotten into, with jokes about seeing her father die and her getting very upset when he leaves during their second encounter.Then she goes bonkers--real bonkers and just when he thought he had her under control, she just increases the level of Bonkers (An impressive feat might I add cause when you watch it, Alex gives a WTF moment, she only tops as the movie goes on).It's effecting his work (Lucky it did not effect his relationship with his boss Herman Munster from the Munsters, cause you know, wouldn't want him to do the Munster mash on you), and of course she's effecting his wife in kid. It's a hard lesson to learn.But it's hard not to still love Micheal Douglas in this movie. Like I said his movie star days seem to have him playing appealing men who get involved with some shading things, Douglas is charming and you can't help but to side with him despite this whole thing being his fault.Stranger for me is that Anne Archer, who plays his wife in the movie was a hot number here. Every time she smiled, I thought to myself "Why would he cheat on her?" I can tell you why. Glenn Close is really sexy in this picture. That's what she has going for her here, mad sex appeal. She was oozing it on the screen and as charismatic as Douglas is, Close fuels the fire. You really could not blame him for wanting to get a piece of that (Which in reality is why he should not have done it cause she made it all too easy for him. I mean way too easy, so easy you knew it was going to end badly).Fatal Attraction has an amazing story well done by the director and the actors that allows it to stand the test of time despite it being so engulfed in the decade it was filmed. Me personally, I remember this New York and all the places they filmed so I was in heaven. All the wide shots of the landscapes were done for dramatic feel (especially one scene were Alex followed Dan home), not knowing that one day looking back on this would take me to that time and place and make the movie even better after almost thirty years.And thirty years later, it's still one of those movies that people reference when they talk about how looney tunes your significant other can get. Not a bad legacy for it at all.http://cinemagardens.com