“Fatal Attraction” isn’t a Thriller to be Ignored…

Greetings, bloggers! I’ve been watching a fair few thrillers as of late. Among these thrillers is the 1987 Adrian Lyne film, “Fatal  Attraction”.  As usual, I’ll be critiquing the plot of the movie, as well as the actors’ performances, my favourite and least favourite scenes, and whether or not it’s worth checking out. Without further delay, here’s “Fatal Attraction”!

The Plot in a Nutshell: Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) is a happily married lawyer based in New York City with his loving wife Beth (Anne Archer) and cute daughter Ellen (Ellen Hamilton Latzen). He should have little to no reason to engage in a meaningless one night stand, right? This isn’t the case, as his head is soon turned by Alex Forrest (Glenn Close), a comely publishing editor when Beth and Ellen are out of town, which leads to them sleeping together.  However, Dan instantly regrets his impromptu fling, and lets down Alex brusquely, who wishes for it to continue.

This turns out to be something that he’ll regret in retrospect, since Alex turns out to be scarily psychotic, even going as far to attempt suicide when Dan reveals his intentions to put their whole one night stand behind him. She soon begins stalking Dan and his family , becoming chummy with Beth and threatening to unveil the affair. This leaves Dan fearful over what lengths Alex will go to snag her man, including kidnapping Ellen,  but it soon transpires that not even Ellen’s pet bunny is safe from Alex’s wrath…

Character/Actor Observations: In my opinion, the main cast members absolutely nail their respective characters, especially Glenn Close, who is utterly compelling as the insane, scorned Alex. She has a superb foil in Anne Archer, who portrays the cuckolded, unsuspecting wife to a tee. Meanwhile, Michael Douglas delivers as a man who made a reckless decision in the spur of the moment, and must repent for his actions.

My Favourite Scene(s) in “Fatal Attraction”: The scene which comes to my mind when envisaging this film is the infamous “Bunny Boiler” scene, where Beth finds a nasty surprise awaiting her on the stove, courtesy of Alex. It helps to show us, the viewer, that things have just gotten really serious. It’s because of this scene that the term “Bunny Boiler” has gone down in history to be synonymous in pop culture with a cheating spouse, or a stalker.

My Least Favourite Scene(s) in “Fatal Attraction”: There wasn’t many scenes which I detested in the film. However, the sequence in which Alex kidnaps Ellen from her school is chilling. While it’s not bad by any means, the scene can really hit home to any parents in the audience, in that the idea of a child going off with a stranger just because they appeared to be nice could happen at any moment. Granted, Ellen doesn’t even realize that she’s being kidnapped, but it’s still a chilling, realistic sequence.

Actors Before they were Famous: This one’s for fans for the NBC sitcom, “30 Rock”. At the opening of the movie, we briefly see a teenage girl babysitting for the Gallaghers. This is Jane Krakowski, who would later be known for her role as diva Jenna Maroney on the sketch comedy.

Miscellaneous Trivia: It’s speculated that Alex has Borderline Personality Disorder, as many of the traits associated with that disorder are symptoms she exhibits throughout the movie, which include the common traits of fear of abandonment, mood swings and self harm. However, according to Glenn Close, when she read the script, she didn’t feel as though Alex had any known psychological disorder that she knew of. Close also states that to this day, passersby approach her on the street and remark “Thank you, you saved my marriage”!

My Take on “Fatal Attraction”: “Fatal Attraction” is a movie which still has the capacity to be genuinely shocking and suspenseful, even after almost 30 following the movie’s initial release. I present it with 3 and a half stars out of five, as it’s riveting and fast-paced, and you care about what happens to the characters, despite the fact that they make rash decisions at times.

Recommendations: If you enjoyed “Fatal Attraction” and wish to view other titles similar to it, then I’d suggest the gripping “Gone Girl”, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. For a version of “Fatal Attraction” set in high school, check out 2002’s “Swimfan”, with Jesse Bradford, Erika Christensen and Shiri Appleby.

Get a Clue with an Unconventional Murder Mystery Flick

It’s never been a secret that I adore murder mysteries, especially ones by Agatha Christie. This has passed on to board games, where the main objective of the popular game “Clue” is to find out who killed a character by the name of Mr. Black, in what room, and with which implement.

The plot of the 1985 Johnathan Lynn flick of the same name is not unlike this setup. It retains the setup of having six eccentric individuals with colour coded pseudonyms being brought to the posh Washington based manor house of Mr Black (renamed here as “Mr Boddy”) (Lee Ving), who is blackmailing each of them for a series of scandalous misdemeanors.

They consist of batty senator’s wife Mrs Peacock (Eileen Brennan), absentminded Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), scarlet woman Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), the lustful and corrupt Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), serial black widow Mrs White (Madeline Kahn) and timid, ambiguous homosexual Mr Green (Michael McKean). Under the guidance of Boddy’s loyal butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) and flirtatious French maid Yvette (Colleen Camp), the six suspects soon find themselves embroiled in a murder plot. When Boddy turns up dead, the suspects must try to uncover who offed him so that they can save their reputations and stop the body count from increasing. But the three different endings complicate this straightforward plan…

“Clue” is one of those movies where you can tell that the actors were enjoying themselves immensely while filming it. These instances include Wadsworth gleefully having a tiff with Miss Scarlet as to how many bullets are left in a gun, to Madeline Kahn randomly seguing into a monologue about how she hated a particular person so much that it left “flames on the sides of her face”. Watching the other actors stare at her bemusedly is even more hysterial when you learn that she ad libbed that line on the spot.

One thing that sets “Clue” apart from films of a similar concept is that it contains not one, not two, but three different endings. When the movie was originally released in December of 1985, cinemas typically aired one ending each. This meant that some moviegoers had to flock to multiple showings in order to view all three endings. However, the DVD version naturally plays all three endings back to back, so that nothing is missed.

I’d recommend watching this movie for the physical comedy and the one-liners as opposed to the actual plot. The premise itself isn’t terrible in any way, it’s just that I find that the joke eclipse it more often, particularly any uttered by Tim Curry, who is just as strong here as he was in “Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

In conclusion, if you like quirky, complicated parodies of murder thrillers, then “Clue” is for you. If not, then watch an Agatha Christie adaptation such as “And Then There Were None”, also about a group of strangers being lured into a mansion, only for death to loom on the horizon. “Clue” gets 3 and a half stars from me.