by Jeffery Rahming, Contributing Writer
In theory, director Adrian Lynne was perfect for Deep Water. Famous for films such as 9 ½ Weeks, Indecent Proposal, and Fatal Attraction (the latter earned him an Oscar nom), he’s no stranger to the erotic thriller genre, a potent cinematic mix of romance and murder. So with that said, it’s hard to see exactly how this movieended up failing in almost every aspect. Far from an exciting and sensual thriller, Deep Water leads the viewer down a repetitive and predictable journey.
Former Hollywood couple Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck portray wealthy spouses, Vic and Melinda Van Allen, who spend most of their days going to lavish parties with their other well-to-do friends. They are entangled in a completely loveless marriage in which Melinda has Vic’s “permission” to sleep with who she wants when she wants. While Vic tries his best to contain his jealousy in front of his friends, this arrangement clearly bothers him. When Vic makes an offhand joke about a member of the friend group who mysteriously disappeared, the group starts to wonder just how far Vic would go to save his already dead relationship.
Despite being labeled a thriller, this movie completely fails to gather any sense of suspense whatsoever. It’s held together by a bare-bones plot that offers no interesting revelations or surprises. This is simply one of the most dramatically inert movies I have ever watched. It is a story that offers nothing but halfhearted sex scenes and a dull murder mystery to try to keep the audience entertained and ultimately ends up going nowhere. The mystery aspect is especially disappointing. If the viewer was paying even a minuscule amount of attention in the first 10 minutes, you could predict the rest of the plot.
The majority of the runtime is spent watching the same scene over and over again. The couple goes to a party. Melinda gets irresponsibly drunk and sleeps with someone. Vic gets jealous and threatens the lover but doesn’t actually do anything. Their friends express concern for them. Repeat ad nauseam. You’re caught in a loop until finally, in the last 20 minutes of the movie, we hastily return to the murder mystery aspect of the plot for one of the most haphazard third acts put to screen.
If there’s any saving grace for this mess, it’s the superbly talented cast who are given the impossible task of trying to make this story interesting. De Armas has proven herself to be one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors, and she does an insanely impressive job of giving some life to a thankless role. With a less capable actress, the movie would’ve been nigh-unwatchable. The other MVP is Lil Rel Howry, who has become the go-to actor for the best friend character (you may remember him playing similar roles in Get Out, Free Guy,and Bad Trip). Whenever he was onscreen, he provided some much-needed levity and energy to this corpse of a film. I dare to say he would’ve been a better choice for the male lead instead of Affleck. If there were more comedic elements in this film, it would’ve been to its benefit. The rest of the cast puts in an admirable effort to give this movie any sense of excitement, but they aren’t able to overcome the script’s weaknesses.
Deep Water fails at every aspect of being an erotic thriller. It’s not sexually charged enough to draw anyone in and not thrilling enough to engage anyone with its mystery. The worst part is that this is a movie where you don’t realize just how bad it is until you’ve finished it. It provides just enough intrigue throughout to drag you to its utterly disappointing conclusion, dashing any hope that you didn’t waste 2 hours of your life. This is a dead-on-arrival movie that isn’t worth your time.
Score: 4/10
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