Bollocks. If Ben Affleck ever rides a bicycle then Ana De Armas should be legally tied up naked in my kitchen. So here we go, here comes Ben with his clutching, grasping man-hands taking advantage of another poor young thing. Perhaps she just isn't as poor and young as we might imagine. You have to love Adrian Lyne. The man makes tantalising, mesmerising movies.
Deep Water has Lyne's trademark insidious overtones at the same time as weaving an unspoken vitriolic fury that is always just one wrong word away from boiling over. The script is clever and crisp and is always hinting at least a double meaning. The interactions between De Armas and Affleck actually fizz and you can feel the venom they have for one another. Sometimes its passion, other times, mildly filtered bare-toothed hatred.
To be honest, I feel Vic's (Affleck) pain. Being married or in a relationship with a beautiful woman, and clearly punching above your weight in the extrovert, fun-time department that she finds so attractive in others, can make you question yourself and more importantly, her. When every man wants to sleep with your wife, you'd better be the best version of yourself you can be that pleases her, or accept that eventually, she will melt through your fingers.
Alternatively, fear is another tool that can be used to your advantage. If that doesn't work, then permanently removing your adversaries is the ultimate option. But whether you do or do not, simply having people believe that you do is enough. Is it not?
"You're a weird guy." "So I've been told."
Engaging throughout, this is as riveting in its moments of pause as it is when there is action on screen. And there is action, though it is muted, rare and adapted for a mainstream audience. What disappoints if anything is both its length and its lack of gratifying closure. Clearing up the loose ends left dangling may well have added half an hour, but the story and the performances were worth the extra minutes.
Another great film from Lyne who continues to defy the decades making quality, thrilling cinema. It wants to be an amalgam of previous Lyne movies, like Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal, where passion and jealousy play major parts, and whilst this alludes to both, it is not as great as either.