Fatal Attraction | | Cast : | Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer | | Director : | Adrian Lyne | | Studio : | Paramount Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | September 18, 1987 | | DVD Released Date : | June 24, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 27, 2005 | | Summary | FATAL ATTRACTION GOES DOWN IN MOVIE HISTORY AS ONE OF THE BEST THRILLERS TO EVER COME OUT!!!!!!! | Content
 | Fatal Attraction is a great thriller and it has a amazing cast which includes Glen Close as the pychic girlfriend!!!!!! Michael Douglas is truly amazing and will be a legendary actor in whatever he does!!!!!!! This movie is the best date movie and it was a huge hit in the 80's!!!!!! Michael is married,but one day meets Glen Close and when he decides to call off his fling!!!!! Glen wasn't going for that at all!!!!!! This movie is one of the best thrillers to ever come out and i do recommend seeing this movie,because its edgy, scary, and has its moments in movie history that you can see over and over again!!!!! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 20, 2005 | | Summary | PLAY MISTY FOR ME IS BETTER! | Content
| The initial "Fatal Attraction" film, "Play Misty For Me" is loads better than this. This film is not without its merits however. Fine performances by the leads and taut direction with no lulls in the plot! Glenn Close appears very unattractive in this film (but then again, she isn't very attractive especially with that tangled hair). She looks like a psycho. One cannnot understand the motivation behind Douglas's character sleeping with her....especially when he has the gorgeous Anne Archer as his wife!! What man in HIS right mind would want to cheat on someone like her??? There is nothing in the script to justify his infidelity. This makes the story less plausible than it could have been, unlike "Play Misty" which involves a single man with a one night stand that went terribly awry. The ending packs a wallop with Douglas, Archer and Close in the bathtub sequence. It would have been helpful though to find out if Close was really pregnant or not. Psychos are pathological liars and will say anything to further their own purposes. Close succeeds brilliantly on all counts and is a great villainness. The screenplay hits another snag in the sequence where Close (Alex) kidnaps the little girl and takes her to the amusement park. There is nothing to show how this is built up? Does she just show up at the school and take the child? The child would be terrified and there would be cause for concern...unless there was no one around, which is highly unlikely. Or does she show up at the school and beguile the little girl with a story of how she is her mother's friend and her mother asked her to pick her up and take her to the amusement park. None of this is shown. All we see is Close and the little girl riding around in a rollercoaster, the little girl having the time of her life, not the least bit afraid. This would have been all right if it had been properly set up, but it wasn't. Also, if I knew there was pyscho threatning my family I would have warned my child to not talk to any strangers!! This is where the plot falls flat. Plus, didn't home security systems exist in 1987???? Or did they just forget to lock their doors when they went to the grandparents house and Close snuck in and started the rabbit stew?? Totally unbelievable. That's why this film merits only 3 stars from me. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 19, 2005 | | Summary | The Directing Elevates this Film | Content
| In the mid 1980s, Michael Douglas began a streak of movie roles that would catapult him to superstardom. The role of Jack Colton in "Romancing the Stone" and "The Jewel of the Nile" gave Douglas a commercial boost. Things would soon start to change in 1987 when Douglas would move into more critically acclaimed roles. The movie that would launch Douglas' critical success would be 1987's "Fatal Attraction". In addition to being a landmark movie for Michael Douglas and his co-star Glenn Close, "Fatal Attraction" would redefine the role of the "Thriller" in Hollywood. No longer would a Thriller just be a blood and gore movie - but now would be attached to a solid storyline while still providing all of the "perks" of that a "Thriller" can offer.
In "Fatal Attraction", Douglas plays Dan Gallagher. When Dan's wife, Beth (played by Anne Archer) goes away for the weekend with their daughter, Dan gets involved in a steamy weekend love affair with a work acquaintance named Alex Forrest (played by Glenn Close). What Dan doesn't know is that Alex is a very unstable person. Alex falls for Dan and quickly develops feelings for him. However Dan looks at things differently and really doesn't have any feelings for her. When reality sets in for Alex that Dan is going to stay with his wife, Alex will first turn suicidal. These suicidal tendencies will then transform to obsession, then rage, and then deadly.
While parts of the story are predictable, I think its the Director of "Fatal Attraction" that makes a big difference. I'm not an expert when it comes to directing, but it seems to me Adrian Lyne does one of the great directing jobs in a movie. He does a great job at providing those "shock" moments that are so essential to a Thriller movie. One example of this is early in the movie when Alex tries to commit suicide after Dan breaks off the affair with her. Ultimately, Lyne's real strength is the ability to bring what I call "bringing parallel scenes to a head". An example of this is the scene where we see Beth frantically searching for their daughter Ellen. It turns out that Alex has kidnapped Ellen and taken her to an amusement park. Lyne will do a great job at paralleling the scenes with Beth in the car with a rollercoaster ride that Ellen and Alex are in. We see this reach a "head" when Beth crashes the car. Lyne will "paint" a virtual picture of the car and the rollercoaster coming to a "head". We also see these parallels done in two other scenes: First is the scene where Alex kills the family's pet Rabbit. The other scene is the movie's finale when Alex breaks into Dan and Beth's house and sneaks up on Beth. The acting in the movie by Douglas, Archer, and Close is good. I can't say the acting elevates the film - to me the elevation in the film is enhanced by the way Lyne puts things together.
There are some things that I don't think the movie does well. For starters, I think the movie could have painted a better picture for helping us understand Dan's motivations for getting involved in an affair in the first place. The movie leads us to believe that this is the first time that Dan has ever had an affair. But what could have been done much better is to help us understand a bit more about Dan's character. Was there "deep pain" within Dan's marriage? Is having an affair inherent nature to Dan? Was it truly a one time episode? The other thing which is a mystery is that Alex tells Dan that she is pregnant. One thing we learn throughout the film is that Alex is a pathological liar. What we don't know is whether or not the pregnancy is another episode of Alex's pathological lying or not. Finally, the ending does leave you hanging quite a bit. Although the triangle between Alex, Dan, and Beth reaches a predictable ending. We don't find out what the future is going to hold for Dan and Beth - that is something I would have liked to have known as part of the ending.
Although they don't play major roles - there are three notable small supporting roles in the movie. The first is Fred ("Herman Munster") Gwynne. In the 80s, Fred Gwynne made a comeback of sorts in his film career - playing small roles. However, Gwynne's role in "Fatal Attraction" isn't very significant. He plays "Arthur" who is a Senior lawyer in Dan's firm. Another actor who has a supporting role is Stuart Pankin who plays Dan's colleague Jimmy. Although Pankin isn't a household name, he one of those "B" line actors whose face and voice is familiar. He has made many guest appearances on television series ("Knots Landing", Falcon Crest"), but he is probably best known for being the voice of Earl Sinclair on the series "Dinosaurs". Pankin's role on shows often provides comic relief. He gets that opportunity in "Fatal Attraction" as well and although he has a bigger role than Gwynne, it still doesn't showcase his talents. Finally Ellen Foley plays Jimmy's wife Hildy. Foley is best known for singing the duet with Meat Loaf in his song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". Foley's character of Hildy will not be a significant one - but it's still worth noting who she is.
While "Fatal Attraction" would revolutionize the way Thrillers would be done, it would also be a blueprint for television shows. The "Fatal Attraction" storyline is a storyline that has been replicated many times. Most notably, the hit television series "Dallas" used an identical storyline with Ray Krebbs.
While there are some of these shortcomings, this film will still entertain from start to finish. Nothing is dragged out - and you certainly won't be bored. This movie is definitely one I'd recommend.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 21, 2005 | | Summary | an important lesson | Content
| This movie has a good lesson that comes with it. Think before you have an extra marital affair. You might at the last minute realize that your having sex with a psycho. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 16, 2005 | | Summary | THE PSYCHO ASKS...are you discreet? | Content
| This movie is a trip! Glenn Close is a sweet lady in real life, but man she scares the crap out of us in this role as a psychologically screwed up woman who sleeps with a married man, then retaliates after he lets her know it was just a fling to him. CRAZY!
"Fatal attraction" has become a household term for love turned to murderous obsession, thanks to the success of Adrian Lyne's 1987 movie. Dan (Michael Douglas) is a family man whose one-night affair with Alex (Glenn Close) turns into a nightmare when she insists on continuing the relationship, claiming to be carrying his baby.
Alex systematically terrorizes Dan, even temporarily kidnapping his daughter, in her attempts to win back his affection. Douglas' besieged family man guiltily tries to preserve his marriage and family from the consequences of his own indiscretion. Close's performance as the love-struck psycho-siren remains her signature role: She conveys the buried feminist message of the film in her challenge to Dan to take responsibility for his sexual behavior. |
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