Deep Water
The sort of erotic drama that Adrian Lyne made his name on between 1986- when “9 1/2 Weeks” came out- and 2002- when “Unfaithful” came out- has not been en vogue in a while. Part of that is the tastes of the audiences, but it’s also because people stopped really being interested in that sort of film if they weren’t watching it at home. That, in and of itself, is what makes his return to the genre with “Deep Water” so fascinating; the story he decided to tell is equally compelling.
“Deep Water” is adapted from a Patricia Highsmith, and like with his criminally-underrated adaptation of “Lolita,” I wonder if this is an itch he’s wanted to scratch for some time. I’m not sure how faithful the screenplay by Zack Helm and Sam Levinson is to the novel, but even if it’s just the bare bones of the narrative, you can see why Lyne would be interested in adapting this story. In a way, it’s like a more subversive version of “Unfaithful,” with a little bit of self-parody thrown in. Whether that works for you or not, you’ll just have to see it for yourself. For me? It worked, but just barely.
Vic Van Allen (Ben Affleck) doesn’t seem to care one bit when his wife, Melinda (Ana de Armas), shamelessly flirts with other men, even in front of their friends. Vic and Melinda have a profoundly unhappy marriage, so- in exchange for keeping the marriage alive for their daughter- Vic allows Melinda to fool around. He almost relishes in it, to a certain extent, and the role it allows him to play; when he goes up to an early interested party in Melinda, he casually says that he murdered a man, who was a former lover of Melinda’s. It’s almost an inside joke to some of their friends…at least, until the man’s body is discovered. Did Vic kill him? And is he capable of killing others? When another possible dalliance of Melinda’s winds up dead, it’s hard not to have questions.
Lyne has been one of the few filmmakers of the past 40 years to really be able to push the envelope when it comes to sexuality on screen, and in major studio films. That’s part of what makes “Deep Water” such an event. There’s not a lot of real nudity, but Lyne still understands some fundamental truths about how to create erotic images on screen. Granted, having someone as stunning as de Armas as one of your leads helps, and she seems to be playfully enjoying the tease Lyne builds in this film. After all, Vic is the possible villain in the film- if we see her actually do anything, we might not feel that way towards her. One of the fundamental ideas in many of Lyne’s best films has been about the ways that infidelity can eat away at a marriage, and here, he seems to be exploring a side of it he hasn’t since “Indecent Proposal.” In that film, the payoff was money that could help a struggling couple. The consequences were eroded trust. Here, the payoff, at least stated, is that it helps keep Melinda in a marriage of convenience more than love- at least, that’s the impression we get; if I have one main complaint is that the film doesn’t really lay out enough in the text of what Vic and Melinda’s “deal” is. The consequences? Vic doesn’t seem to do well holding his jealousy in. Affleck does play a magnificent, entitled bastard.
As the film goes on, we sense not only any moral compass the film had deteriorating, but also its ability to take itself seriously. There is a sequence that plays like a straight parody of the type of race against the clock we sometimes see in this sort of film; I couldn’t help but laugh my ass off when it ended, it was so absurd. The final moments, though, are ice cold, and give us memories of other times in his career when Lyne was unflinching in how he ended a film. For that reason, “Deep Water” might welcome repeat viewings, and be a new “classic” in the genre from a man who helped mainstream it, and grow it.
