Overview and Production
Deep Water is a psychological erotic thriller released in 2022 by Adrian Lyne. This film marked Lyne’s return to the director’s chair after a 20-year hiatus following his 2002 film Unfaithful. The screenplay is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel of the same name, with Highsmith’s work done by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson. It features Affleck and Ana de Armas in the leading roles. Deep Water explores the dark undercurrents of married life, set amidst the privileged, bourgeois community.
20th Century Studios distributed the film, releasing it in the US on Hulu and internationally on Amazon Prime Video, a result of altered theatrical release strategies during the pandemic. Approximately 49 million dollars were invested in the production budget.
Plot Synopsis
In the affluent region of Louisiana, Vic and Melinda Van Allen seem to lead a flawless life. The couple has a young daughter who is being raised by Vic, a retired robotics engineer who also dabbles in snail breeding as a hobby. In contrast, Melinda is an emotionally restless person in a domestic quiet life. To cope with her floundering life, she has a series of affairs with her younger men.
Regardless of everything, the couple is still in a marriage. Vic states that he married Melinda out of love and has tolerated all her infidelities just so he doesn’t have to go through a divorce. Things take a darker twist when Melinda’s ex-lovers start mysteriously disappearing after Vic begins to jokingly say he has killed some of them. Initially, everyone attributed these claims to the dark fantasies of a man dressed as the joker, however, it turns out the opposite is true, and most of her boyfriends end up missing later. The question still remains: what if his terrifying claims are in fact true?
With growing suspicion, Vic becomes a person of interest not only to his wife but also to their friend and one local writer, Don Wilson, who independently decides to delve deeper into Vic’s behavior. The psychological tension intensifies when Melinda starts both loathing and loving her husband’s chilling stoicism. Their bizarre union evolves into an even deeper, darker co-dependency, leading to an explosive moment when Melinda finds irrefutable proof of Vic’s escapades—a wallet of one of her missing lovers—but decides to obliterate it instead of turning it into law enforcement.
That act is perhaps the most telling moment of this disturbing, wrong way of reconciliation between them. They do not separate; instead, they come together in this grotesque pact forged by the layering of intimacy, secrets drenched in stifled feelings, devoid of affection or fidelity.
Main Cast and Performances
Ben Affleck as Vic Van Allen: Affleck’s portrayal as Vic includes the performance where he exercises extreme control as anger sits simmering below the surface of calm stillness, now a repressed rage. The audience does not fully understand his character until the climax, which keeps them guessing about his morality and mental state.
Ana de Armas as Melinda Van Allen: De Armas interprets Melinda with a blend of seductiveness and emotional volatility. A duality of manipulative and vulnerable, she depicts the contradictions of a woman yearning for desire but dangerously bored with comfort.
Tracy Letts as Don Wilson: Letts infuses his character with energy and suspicion as a writer who becomes fixated on uncovering Vic. He serves an important narrative function as an external moral compass attempting to resolve the Van Allens’ unsettling entanglement.
Other supporting actors include Lil Rel Howery, Dash Mihok, and Jacob Elordi, all adding to the narrative tension but primarily serving as background to the focal couple.
Direction and Cinematic Style
Deep Water marks the continued collaboration of Adrian Lyne and his signature tone stemming from films like Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, and Unfaithful. This specific work uses stylistic devices to paint sensuality and sinister elements as one, creating an uneasy relationship between eroticism and violence. Observe the psychological interplay between Vic and Melinda whilst the deliberate pacing evokes growing dread.
Cinematographer Eigil Bryld’s work captures Louisiana’s wetlands and the verdant landscape’s interplay with steam and heat. It accents the humid and lush setting. However, the cinematic depiction starkly contrasts the somber story being presented. The Van Allens’ relationship is mirrored in the interior spaces of water; decaying nature also serves as a reflection of emotional stagnation and ambiguous morals.
Themes and Analysis
While Deep Water can be characterized as a thriller, it is equally a character exploration and reflection on contemporary relationships. The film brings forth the following central themes:
Marriage as Performance and Prison: The marriage of Van Allens operates on an outward basis, where both participants feign harmony while in reality, there is dysfunction festering underneath. It transforms into a prison where both seem to punish one another through emotional and psychological means.
Possession and Jealousy: Melinda’s affairs appear to be tolerable to Vic, but only on the surface. Her so-called freedom is deeply restrained by possessiveness and jealousy, entrenched in Melinda’s affairs.
Moral Ambiguity: The film poses questions and withholds answers. Are these questions concerning Vic being a villain or tragic antihero, and Melinda’s role as a neglected victim or a domestic provocateur unresolved? These unanswered questions force the audience to challenge themselves with their answers.
Eros and Thanatos: As classified within its genre, Deep Water addresses the nexus of sexuality and mortality, affection and brutality. The eroticism captured in the film often bears the weight of threat, transforming a romantic closeness into a contest of control.
Reception and Legacy
Criticism of the film was mixed. While critics highlighted its stylish direction and the chemistry between Affleck and de Armas, some others criticized its pacing and lack of narrative coherence. Determined viewers expressed conflicting opinions about the film; some believed that the filmmakers succeeded as a modern erotic thriller while others vehemently disagreed.
While many appreciated the film’s attention toward character over plot, others bemoaned the lack of suspense. Most notably, the ending received the most attention; was Melinda’s decision to protect Vic an act of love, submission, complicity or embrace of resignation?
Regardless of mixed reviews, Deep Water received praise for attempting to revive the erotic thriller genre with a contemporary spin. Due to Affleck and de Armas’s real-life romance during filming, there was also additional public interest that added intrigue beyond the drama unfolding on-screen.
Conclusion
Deep Water reveals the still waters beneath a surface-level marriage filled with control, manipulation, and emotional erosion. Lyne expertly builds tension and atmosphere so that every look and move is weighted with significance. Guest starring Affleck and De Armas, Deep Water elegantly escorts audiences into a realm where affection and aggression, fidelity and betrayal are inextricably intertwined.
Deep Water may lack the climactic punches modern thrillers seem to favor, but it triumphs as a sober reflection on the relentless, and at times, chilling battle between maintaining a façade, managing unsatisfied wishes, and keeping sordid truths hidden far beneath the surface.
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