by Shane Conto
Who doesn’t love a good hammy and sultry thriller? You know the kind, right? There is some smooth R&B during some steamy sex scenes. The dialogue is delivered with such precise charm and oozing cheesiness that you cannot help but smile. The tention is tightening with every single passing scene. Everyone just so happens to be extremely attractive too, right? In the end, the film really knows what it is and has plenty of fun with it. But what if this formula is taken way too straight? You get Fatale.
Should this be surprising when you are getting ready to watch a Deon Taylor picture?
Taylor has focused the last couple of years of his career on thrillers like Traffik and The Intruder. Those films have a very specific kind of…vibe. Fatale definitely follows suit with a thriller that should really be a little more tongue-in-cheek but instead is way too serious. Apparently only Dennis Quaid knows how to get campy in these Taylor thrillers (his performance in The Intruder is worth the watch). This new thriller is about an unhappily married man who is in Vegas for a bachelor party and has an intimate night with a strange woman. How long does it take for her to start showing signs of clinging or crazy? A whole minute of course! Then you get a rollercoaster ride of melodrama and obnoxious twists. Throw in a sheen and an artificial look, you get Fatale!
But something feels oddly familiar about this script as well. What could it be?
Oh…David Loughery has written such films as The Intruder…and Obsessed…and Blindsided. The biggest theme of all of these classic screenplays is that women are…well…crazy. Such a great theme, right? Detective Quinlan, this woman who had the one-night stand with the “protagonist”, is shown to be psychotic from the second she had sex. The film tries to build in a motivation for her murderous acts but it never clicks. Then there is Derrick, our “protagonist”. Why am I using quotations for the word protagonist? Well, because Michael Ealy plays yet another horribly unsympathetic lead in a Taylor-Loughery collaboration. Do you care about a man who just cheats on his wife and in general is not likeable? Not really. There are some important themes about keeping a man’s identity but it can be so heavy-handed.
But there has to be an aspect of the film that really works, right?
Hilary Swank does! Swank is a talented actress who has been in a drought in her career for the past 10 years. But 2020 has been quite the turnaround for her. At least Swank is committed and plays this crazy character with some serious charm. She is asked if she is psychotic and Swank delivers affirmation with such a great smirk. It works. Ealy can be hit or miss in the film as he does over-express on his face quite a few times.
The most important question to wrap up with has to be…is Fatale worth your time?
That is a tricky question. Does the film work as a truly tense and suspenseful thriller? The dialogue is too awkward and the character choices are just too ridiculous to be taken seriously. But does the film work as a hammy and fun time to enjoy? Not quite. Taylor plays this potentially hammy and fun thriller too straight. So, is it worth it? Probably not.
Grade: D