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Glenn Close and Michael Douglas embark on a disastrous affair in Fatal Attraction |
Fatal Attraction is a film that is going to struggle
the more we move into the #metoo era. While in the 1980s audiences could be
expected to be reasonably sympathetic to a man who just wants a bit on the side
– and then feels oppressed by the moral consequences that follow – today it’s a
bit tricky to feel the same. Put bluntly, Dan is a selfish man who is desperate
to be seen to be doing the right thing. And while he realises he’s
probably made a mistake after his first one-night stand, he still throws
himself into a second day of flirting and sex with Alex (out of a sense of social
obligation).
But then Fatal Attraction is a deeply conservative
film that plays into feelings of fear and anxiety at the idea of the perfect
domestic life being assaulted by an outsider. It portrays the damaging impact
on Dan and his family as entirely the responsibility of Alex, instead of admitting
that clearly both Dan and Alex are to blame for what happens. Sure, Alex becomes
a (literal) bunny-boiler (this film is the origin of the phrase) and later a
knife-wielding psychopath. But all this spins out of Dan’s selfishness and his
fundamental lack of regard for the feelings of either his wife or Alex (both of
whom he wants to think of him as being a good guy – which he probably isn’t).
Dan’s “have his cake and eat it” attitude is the real
villain here – and while he is, of course, unlucky to hook up with someone as
unbalanced as Alex, any perfectly rounded person would be expected to at least
match some of Alex’s reactions. She’s right to say that he is shirking his
responsibility, right to say that its wrong for him to use her for a bit of fun
and discard her, and she’s right to be disgusted at his automatic offer to pay
for the abortion he assumes she will agree to.
A more modern version of Fatal Attraction would
probably play out a bit more like the TV multi-perspective drama The Affair
(where Dominic West and Ruth Wilson’s characters split the narrative between
their very different perspectives on a life-shattering love-affair). It would
show more sympathy for Alex’s desperation, loneliness and sadness – and really
explore what it is that happened in her past that made her react as extremely
to rejection and betrayal as this. And it would have greater criticism for
Dan’s cavalier attitude to other people’s feelings.
But then a film like that wouldn’t have been a hit. Glenn
Close may not have liked the reshot ending – which came out of test screenings
that showed audiences really wanted Douglas to kill that bitch – with Alex
entering the Gallagher country home with murder in mind. But the final
desperate battle between Dan/Ruth and Alex – and the nuclear family being
re-cemented in the shedding of Alex’s blood – was what made the film such a
hit. Because who wants the complexity of shared responsibility when “The Other
Woman” can literally rise from the dead to strike one final blow before being
gunned down?
The film also worked of course due to Glenn Close’s fabulous
performance in the lead role. Close worked hard to not position Alex – for all
the film aims to do this – as a creepy stalker. Instead she invests her with a
righteous fury of a woman who feels she has been terribly wronged, whose every
attempt at peace-making has been slapped away and responds with justified
anger. There is a real fragility in Close – who consulted psychiatrists to
understand Alex’s fragile mindset – and she never lets us forget the pain
motivating her actions, even as the film becomes ever more melodramatic and
turns her character into more and more of a horror film staple.
Opposite her, Michael Douglas is equally good. This was
Douglas’ first in a run of roles where he seemed to embody something in the everyday
American-man that lived in terror of female independence and sexuality (he
would be terrified on screen by Sharon Stone, Kathleen Turner and Demi Moore over
the next seven years). Douglas is great though because while he looks the
American dream, he conveys this sense of weakness and compromise. He convinces
completely as a rather weak-willed man, terrified of being made to face the
consequences of his actions. Archer is also first-rate in a surprisingly
low-key role as the wronged wife.
Fatal Attraction starts out as a fascinating look at
morality and morals in modern America and ends as a slasher film. A more
complex film might have lasted better – even if it wasn’t such a hit – but it
throws just about enough depth in there, before the madness descends.
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