Deep Water is a 2022 erotic psychological thriller film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, with Tracy letts, Lil Rel Howery, Dash Mihok , Finn Wittrock, Kristen Connolly, Jacob Elordi, and Rachel Blanchard. It marks Lyne’s return to filmmaking after a 20-year hiatus since his last film Unfaithful (2002). It is Disney’s first erotic film in 28 years since Color of Night (not counting any from Miramax Films before 2010, nor those recieved from 20th Century Fox catalog0 and is Hasbro’s first erotic film after the acquisition of Entertainment One in 2019.
Vic and Melinda Van Allen are a couple with a daughter living in the small town of Wesley, Louisiana. Their loveless marriage is bonded together only by a dangerous arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the mess of getting divorced, Melinda is alloed to have any amount of lovers as long as she does not abandon her family. Vic tells her one of her lovers that he murdered is her previous boyfriend. The story goes around their social group, causing the lover to move away raising questions as to the truth of the story. Melinda;s next lover is drowns at a party they are attending; and the next boyfriend, Tony is killed by Vic who throws the body in a creek.
Viewers, after watching the trailer for this film, may think Deep Water is worth a plunge, but this film is far from being great and is definitely not Adrian Lyne’s best work. His return to filmmaking, makes film lovers excited, but after watching this movie, he should probably just go back to not working in the film industry, as this film is quite a disappointment and focuses far too much on Melinda’s multiple affairs and Vic’s murdering and doesn’t go into much detail about why that happens, how it started, how they met, etc, unlike Patricia Highsmith’s book, which is the source material.
The film continually makes you angry at both of the main characters, particurally Melinda, who many times in the movie, cheats on her husband, right in front of him. The woman is a major adultress and only her husband and her lovers know this, she hides it from their daughter and friends. Eventually, their friends find out about her promiscuous ways and their daughter believes that her dad drowned her mom’s friend at the party.
This film is far from realistic, because a normal husband would’ve divorced her after the first or second affair. There is also a lot of sex (of course), drinking, violence and foul language. The acting is supreb from both Affleck and de Armas and the sound is great as well. But the film is far too dark, sexual and disturbing to be remotely entertaining or even a little bit enjoyable. I don’t mind sensual films, but this one took it too far, making me so angry, I wanted to take a baseball bat to my TV.
I wanted to enjoy this movie, but I did not at all. It was too dirty, too violent, too discomforting and too slow. I don’t understand how such a film like this ever got greenlit. Don’t waste your time with this movie. Adults only. 2.5/5