Fatal Attraction

Spoilers in this piece, please check out the film if you haven’t yet.  You won’t regret it.

Yes, this is one of the best thrillers of all time but a really weird thing that sticks out is Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas (Black Rain)) doesn’t appear to have any motivation to cheat on his wife (Anne Archer (Clear and Present Danger)).  He gets along with her, he loves their kid, things are going well at his job and he has fun hanging out with his friends.  As far as we know he doesn’t have a history of affairs either.  So what gives?  Is it because his six year old daughter cock blocked him after the book release party?

At one point Alex Forrest (Glenn Close (Jagged Edge)) asks Dan point blank what he’s doing with her when he’s got a wife at home but Dan deflects and the subject is dropped.  Maybe this guy is so sex crazed and/or deprived that he can’t help himself.  Maybe he has a serious problem.  He’s clearly not in love with Alex otherwise he would want to continue seeing her.  Instead he’s adamant about the encounter being a two day fling.

If you step back for a moment Dan should be the bad guy here.  His dick brained impulsiveness crippled his marriage, scarred his daughter emotionally and put his family’s safety at risk.  But because Alex is such a deranged, mentally disturbed, seriously dangerous person our priorities shift.  Suddenly having an affair doesn’t seem so bad compared to kidnapping and attempted murder.  Ironically Dan commits some crimes of his own with breaking and entering and several counts (!!) of attempted murder.  Yet we’re still on his side.

Apart from the frenzied choking and stuff Dan can be cruel in other ways.  For instance he fakes a heart attack in front of Alex as a GOTCHA! hahaha moment.  Alex immediately returns the favor by pretending she witnessed her father die of heart attack when she was little.  I’m not saying tit for tat is really a good idea in most situations but I have to admit Dan sorta had that coming.

Fatal Attraction is a complicated movie because the characters are complicated.  I mean Dan’s wife didn’t do anything to deserve the heartbreak or knife attack that Dan is one hundred percent responsible for laying at her feet however she sticks with him in the end.  See what I’m talking about?

I wonder how the original ending would’ve changed my feelings.  It was completely different where Alex kills herself and gets Dan’s fingerprints on the knife framing him for the deed.  The film concludes with his arrest.  While it’s tempting to say Dan would’ve gotten his comeuppance I think going to prison, or being executed, for being an adulterous bastard is a punishment that’s too extreme.  Not only that but Alex would’ve won in this scenario.  She utterly destroyed the man’s life (and the lives of those closest to him) who rejected her and she doesn’t have to ever feel guilty about that because she’s not breathing anymore.  On paper this seems like an unsatisfying conclusion but then again refusing to give Dan a motive for cheating seems like it wouldn’t work either.

This lack of explanation and fundamental foundation for the story should kind of ruin the movie.  How come it doesn’t then?  I guess the other components are so gripping it can’t be denied.  The casting and performances are excellent, the story is like a car crash you can’t look away from with Dan’s nightmare getting worse and worse and the cinematography is very measured with fancier angles and smart cutting shining through during the passionate intense scenes.

A particular highlight is the creepy tape Alex leaves for Dan where she rambles about how much she hates him in a cool and collected tone.  And the twists and turns of the finale are just fantastic as well.

But I don’t know what set decorator George DeTitta (Death Wish, Saturday Night Fever) was thinking with so many pictures on the walls in the Gallagher’s homes.  They have a lot of shit around the house in general (which may not be as bad as the Harfords from Eyes Wide Shut) but damn, they sure like to nail those photos to the wall.  Even the bathroom at their upstate house is littered with them.  With all those eyes staring at you it’s like there’s no privacy at all in that room.

Alright, this was an unusual type of write up but most of you out there already know how good this picture is so I wanted to bring up something that maybe you hadn’t thought about before.  A little change from the usual format.  But that’s it.  This is a one time deal.  Two ships passing in the night and all that.  You understand.

Before I go I’ll leave you with two things.  First is a picture I took at a wax museum I visited when I went to Niagara Falls in 2013.  They had a Fatal Attraction display and it’s hilariously awful, especially the Michael Douglas figure who looks emaciated and twenty years older than he’s supposed to.

The other item is a track some friends and I did many years ago where we sampled some audio from this film.  I think the song is funny bad but I don’t blame you if you think it’s just bad bad.