Adrian Lyne’s thriller, Deep Water, was released in 2022 and marks his return to the big screen after a lengthy hiatus. The film, built around Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck, looks into the deterioration of an almost perfect marriage replete with deep-rooted dysfunction. It draws inspiration from the erotic novel by Patricia Highsmith, published in 1957.
Vic and Melinda Van Allen, the main characters, live in a fictitious affluent neighborhood in Louisiana. They flaunt all the trappings of wealth such as a beautiful home and expensive cars. But Vic and Melinda’s seemingly perfect life and joyful daughter is accompanied by a much deeper emotional problem.
Melinda deals openly with other men, and Vic remains quiet while sulking in his own anger. Inferior to these roles economically and socially, they could hardly ever be accepted from. dob
The film tries to capture the essence of emotional manipulation, sexual power play, and self-loathing.
The film takes its time indicating that Vic’s inaction is not simply apathy or love, but rather an acceptance that he finds a peculiar power in the set order. He begins to hint at having a hand in the inexplicable vanishing of one of Melinda’s former suitors. Whether he is teasing or disclosing the truth is left unresolved on purpose—an element of the warped psychological game he executes not only with Melinda but also with their acquaintances. With many lovers disappearing or ending up dead, the surmounting suspicion, coupled with the increasing tension, leads to an unavoidable confrontation.
Ben Affleck embodies strictly controlled emotions for Vic. He constricts himself to limited externalization, communicating very little but a lot through his gaze, ergonomics, and soft threat. Affleck focuses on Vic’s bleak indifference and detachment, granting sympathy as well as an unsettling feeling. A woman projecting himself as a man in control, locked in a deceptive reality with the illusion of command while desperately attempting to uphold composure and sanity drifts away.
Ana de Armas, for her part, injects an unpredictable fire into the role of Melinda. In her performance, she approaches the character as a woman who goes against the domestic standards of fidelity and femininity. Melinda is reckless and cruel at times, but also complex—desperately trying to find meaning in a passionless marriage. De Armas makes Melinda both mesmerizing and terrible because of the way she weaves danger and fragility into the character.
Affleck’s and de Armas’s lived realities during the movie’s production served as a backdrop to the film’s context and relationship statement. The relationship is often uncomfortable to witness, marked by a violent clash of desire, loathing, and some sort of warped affection. The balance shifts toward a power struggle, through which the film drives the overarching focus, in place of mystery and thriller, considering elements.
After a 20 year break from film, director Adrian Lyne is back and as skillful as ever at creating sexually charged tension. His style is still present in Deep Water where he builds psychologically troubling and sexually ambiguous settings. However, in comparison to his previous works, which included Deep Water’s engrossing character arcs and narratives, Deep Water can feel at times unfulfilling when it comes to storytelling. The film lightly brushes over more complex ideas like the deeply rooted flaws masking the ideal suburban veneer and the lies required to maintain such a lifestyle without fully exploring them.
The film is set in the elite world of the couple, and the cinematography captures their lavish lifestyle alongside the emotional bleakness it entails. Deep Water is polished and stylized as well. Captured through the lens of soft lighting and stormy interiors like sultry wide shots, the film takes on a stifling quality parallel to the psycho confinement endured by the characters. Each specific shot makes the viewer feel as though they are forced into a corner. The pace is unhurried and methodical, at times leaning towards the slow burn, Vic and Melinda’s stagnant marriage serves as a perfect example of a metaphorical standstill.
Regardless of the premise and the producers who brought this film to life, Deep Water fails to either meet expectations as a psychological character study or an erotic thriller. Issues of tonal inconsistency accompanied with insufficient narrative pacing have also been points of critique. The film offers an unfolding of events instead of a cohesive narrative structure, making it feel more like a collection of loosely associated incidents. Furthermore, in a story centered around suspense, the tension consistently withdraws at the moments it is supposed to build the most.
Deep Water is often dismissed as a movie, but there is something captivating that is hard to place. Perhaps it is the overflowing fascination rooted in witnessing the malignant relationship of two flawed characters who participate in a warped game of power and intimacy. Or perhaps it is the underlying commentary on contemporary issues: the leniency of boundaries, along with the redefining of roles. The film poses intriguing considerations. What constitutes a functional marriage? Tolerating one another is love, is it? Is neglect more harmful than betrayal?
In my opinion, Deep Water serves its purpose better as a study of a dysfunctional couple as opposed to a malice plot centered around a murder. In my opinion, it works better as an examination of a couple whose relationship is so twisted, they become incapable of recognizing love. It compels the audience to reevaluate their parameters surrounding the nature of loyalty, dominion, and power. Rather than contemplating the ambiguity of Vic’s guilt, take into consideration the psychological consequences of his actions juxtaposed against the two’s ‘choiceless’ choices. This is not just a film about secrets, but also about the secrets we hold from ourselves along with the ones intended for others.
From a critical perspective, Deep Water did not sit well with audiences. Some viewers appreciated the performances and the direction, while others felt the film lacked suspense and a deep storyline. While it does not reach the zeniths of Lyne’s earlier works, it still occupies a spot within the realm of erotic thrillers—marked as contemporary yet nostalgic.
In summary, Deep Water is a somber, morally gray story of love, obsession, and psychological warfare set against the backdrop of a stylish thriller. While it may not deliver on thrills, the depiction of a marriage grounded in manipulation paired with quiet violence is haunting. It offers no solutions, only uncomfortable queries—a crude reflection of desire in today’s world.
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