Deep Water

Starring: Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas, Tracy Letts, Grace Jenkins, Dash Mihok, Rachel Blanchard, Kristen Connolly, Jacob Elordi, Lil Rel Howery, Brendan Miller, Finn Wittrock
Directed by: Adrian Lyne
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
2022

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A husband (Ben Affleck) and his wife (Ana de Armas) clash over their relationship and the men she sees on the side.

Review:

Tim: I'm sorry, but what the hell was this? Adrian Lyne has always been a bit of a controversial director, pushing boundaries in his films. I've tended to like his movie less than many, but I recognize his talent. Deep Water is clearly the worst movie of his I've seen. He hasn't directed a film in 20 years and I think it's fair to say he is fairly rusty and has lost a step. This movie is a mess. The script has huge problems, but the direction doesn't help. It was tough to get through, made little sense, had no worthwhile characters. It's a bad movie.

I'm still not entirely sure what the point of the movie was. What were we supposed to care about? What mattered? The film centers around a bizarre relationship between a husband and wife. They have an open relationship, which the wife flaunts at every turn. The husband grows increasingly jealous, potentially even murdering her lovers. The whole thing is dark, twisted, and mostly uninteresting. There's some attraction to the ridiculousness of the plot at first, but this grows thin. There's some legitimate suspense early on, when you're trying to figure out what exactly is happening. The mystery drives the film forward for a while, but eventually, as the layers are pulled back and the whole story is revealed, we discover it wasn't a journey worth taking. Sadly, we learn this too late.

There were good performances in this film, but the characters were awful. I disliked them all immensely and even worse, they bored me. Watching couples fight isn't exactly riveting cinema. Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas both give good performances- they step into their characters and bring out their worst qualities. Affleck succeeds in highlighting the smouldering jealousy, de Armas in her carefree flirty charisma. The problem is that neither character is as interesting as the movie thinks they are. Tracy Letts, Kristen Connolly, and Lil Rel Howery all add in nice supporting performances, but their roles are too small. Connolly definitely needed more to do. They're very much in the shadow of the stars. I thought Finn Wittrock did a nice job, too. The problem is definitely the script and the depiction of all these characters.

Despite some interesting mystery elements early on, the film soon settles into its groove (and it's an ineffective one). The story gets repetitive. The wife starts seeing a younger man on the side, in full view of everyone, including her husband. He gets jealous and says something. The person either leaves or disappears mysteriously and it's possible he had something to do with it. The wife gets upset. Repeat. There's some decent individual moments that work throughout this process, but the cycle itself grows old quickly. The film does try to bring it all together for a big climax, which falls short. There's several moments of immense coincidence that conclude the film in an unsatisfying, eye-rolling fashion. I never read the original novel and don't plan to, but I have to believe something was lost in translation from the page to the screen. The weak script absolutely deserves great criticism for the film's total failure.

Lyne has always been interested in erotic thrillers and he's directed several of the classics in the subgenre. He's definitely out to add another one here, although this attempt is a major fail. Movies like Indecent Proposal, Fatal Attraction, and Unfaithful had their problems, but the stories were interesting, the thrills felt real. This movie falls far below that level. We spend far too much time just hanging out with this toxic relationship. The film never builds enough momentum. The story never quite loses us completely- there's always the promise that things will pay off and make sense in the end (they don't). But it's not a compelling film and I suspect most viewers will get bored far before the 1 hour, 55 minute film concludes. Lyne seemed interested in telling a steamy tale, but he seems to have forgotten to tell an interesting one.

I'm not really sure who would enjoy this movie. It falls far below great films like Gone Girl and even below good but flawed movies like The Girl on the Train. Lyne has always made movies that don't appeal to everyone, but this is the 6th film of his I've seen, and it's clearly his worst.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Indecent Proposal, Fatal Attraction, Unfaithful, Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, Flashdance, Knock Knock