Fatal Attraction: Paramount Presents Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 4.0/5

Plot Synopsis: For Dan Gallagher (MICHAEL DOUGLAS), life is good. He is on the rise at his New York law firm, is happily married to his wife, Beth (ANNE ARCHER), and has a loving daughter. But, after a casual fling with a sultry book editor named Alex (GLENN CLOSE), everything changes. Jilted by Dan, Alex becomes unstable, her behavior escalating from aggressive pursuit to obsessive stalking. Dan realizes that his main problem is not hiding his affair, but rather saving himself and his family.

Review (from 2009): Fellas, if there was one movie ever made that would keep you from cheating on your woman, other than the moral implications of breaking your vows/oath, Fatal Attraction is a must-see because as Tom Hanks said in Sleepless in Seattle: “It [Fatal Attraction] scared the shit out of every man in America.” And boy does it. I hadn’t seen the movie in years but I think it takes on more of an impact the older you get.

Is the movie realistic? Probably not, but because Glenn Close’s manic performance, you could not help but be scared no matter how outlandish some of the situations may be. Some may feel her performance was over the top, but in fact it’s just what the role needed in order for the film to even work. And then you add in the automatically profound screen presence whenever Michael Douglas is around, and you’ve got a recipe for success. Sure, one should scorn someone like Douglas’ character who would cheat on his beautiful wife, risking a nice life for a quick and sensuous fling, but at the same time you can’t help but to still root for the guy, and that’s a tribute to Douglas himself.

Of course, to the credit of writer James Deardan (based on his own script for a short filmed called Diversion), he lays out an interesting story and creates situations that makes you, the viewer, yell at the screen, “Get the f***k out of there!” or “Just leave the beyotch to die!” (in reference to a suicide attempt).

Fatal Attraction was directed by Adiran Lyne, who strangely does not have an extensive career, but he has had a few notable films such as Indecent Proposal, Flashdance and most the amazing Unfaithful, a film that’s kind of in the same vein as Attraction. Just thinking about it now, the movie spawned a few homages over the years including Swimfan with Erika Christensen in the Glenn Close role.

Overall, Fatal Attraction has a couple problems here and there and is a little predictable when it came to the final act, but this is still a well made, well written thriller with good performances from Douglas and Close, not to mention Anne Archer who holds her own.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.25/5

Commentary by Director Adrian Lyne is a fairly low-key track where Lyne chats it up about places the film was shot at and breaking down scenes. But there is a bunch of silent gaps.

Alternate Ending (8:45) comes with an intro with Adrian Lyne (0:16) and it is dramatically different than the theatrical one, but not necessarily better and certainly lower key and prefer the theatrical version.

Rehearsal Footage (7:09) shows the video of Michael Douglas and Glenn Close rehearsing the restaurant scene.

The only new item is an Interview with film critic Leonard Maltin.

VIDEO – 4.5/5

AUDIO – 3.75/5

OVERALL – 3.5/5

Fatal Attraction is one of those quintessential movies of the 80s but even 30+ years later, it still holds up quite well. Although by today’s standards it’s probably par for the course, the sex scenes are still steamy. This new edition does have great video transfer, assuming it is new, though as with To Catch a Thief, for whatever reason featurettes were left off this release.