【Frivolous Lola】

Beyond its tantalizing trailer,Frivolous Lola the early allure of Deep Waterwas that this erotic thriller starred the pandemic power couple of 2020, Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas. While many of us were in unglamorous lockdown, paparazzi shots of the pair flaunted a romance of coffee runs, matching jewelry, and a quirky cardboard cutout of De Armas, which was more than happy to pose for pictures. But by the beginning of 2021, the two had called it quits. De Armas moved onto new adventures; Affleck rekindled his headline-snagging love with Jennifer Lopez. All this while, Deep Water, which was shot in 2019,patiently awaited release.

Now, at long last, Hulu has unleashed the movie that was maybe the start of this curious celebrity coupling. And regrettably, the film's strongest asset might be the gawkery of it all. 

Deep Water should be a sleazy, sexy thrill ride 

An unholy collision of scintillating talent made this movie happen. Beyond A-lister Affleck and Knives Out's breakout star, Deep Waterboasts director Adrian Lyne, whose reputation was built on such racy movies as 9 ½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, and Unfaithful. A master of the '90s erotic thriller, he joins forces with modern provocateur Sam Levinson, who created Euphoriaand co-wrote this script with Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction).

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But the story itself comes from a novel by Patricia Highsmith — the queen of twisted and titillating tales of lust and betrayal, ranging from Strangers on a Train to The Talented Mr. Ripleyto The Price of Salt(which was adapted into Carol). With all this incredible talent for brewing desire and deception, Deep Watershould be a nerve-shredding, pulse-racing jolt to the system that rattles you, head to toes. Sadly, it cannot pay off the promise of its people. 

Credit: 20th Century Studios

Ben Affleck stars as Vic Van Allen, a middle-aged family man who seems to have a dream life — on the surface. In early retirement, he has great wealth, devoted friends, an adoring daughter, and plenty of free time to spend with his beautiful young wife Melinda (De Armas). However, the film pulls at the thread of "be careful what you wish for," unfurling a nightmare scenario. Melinda Van Allen is a sultry bombshell, who revels in a good party, a stiff drink, and any pretty young man who will join her in both. She flaunts her affairs in front of her humiliated husband and his friends. So, when one of her former flings turns up missing, Vic says simply, "I killed him." 

Is he a cuckold turned killer? Is this a lie meant to scare off the next would-be lover? Or is it a game between him and his wife — one where love, hatred, sex, and the lives of others are all playable pieces? 

Deep Water can't reach Gone Girl good 

For the first act, Deep Waterkeeps us in the dark about Vic's truth, leaving us few clues beyond Affleck's shrewdly enigmatic performance. For the first half, the film plays like a smart pairing with Gone Girl, where Affleck's good looks and bro-y charm were weaponized so audiences couldn't be quite sure whether to trust him. But where Gone Girl's second half tossed audiences into mind-bending revelations with a masterfully crafty manipulator, Deep Waterlumbers into choices more tepid than transfixing.

Going off the disturbing and dizzying drama of Lyne's past works, I had hoped Deep Watermight play with ambiguity in Vic's guilt or innocence for longer. Perhaps it might offer Lyne's spin on Luis Buñuel's The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz,a classic tale of a man whose violent visions reveal his own impotence? Instead, Vic's mysteries are clumsily solved in unsatisfying ways, and Affleck's glowering veers into the frowns that have made him a recurring meme. It's intriguing, but in a way that comes off as more silly than sophisticated.

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Credit: 20th Century Studios

Deep Water is poisoned by a thinly sketched femme fatale

Perhaps the problem is that Highsmith's story is already 65 years old. For decades, her tawdry twists have been translated and mimicked by many screenwriters, leaving some flaccidly predictable. Despite a dramatic final act change from the original novel, Levinson and Helm have not rejuvenated Deep Water but made it feel even more grimly out of date. For instance, while Vic's motives and private moments are lavishly explored, Melinda is a mean — even misogynistic — sketch of a vicious wife. 

Witness Vic as he makes homemade lobster bisque, warmly chats with their young daughter (Grace Jenkins), and tends to his pet snails (a curious but inconsequential element). Meanwhile, Melinda is painted through a leering lens that makes her oft-exposed back a sneering taunt to the husband she won't let touch her. Her smiles, never for him, are a barb. Her dialogue is sharp with melodramatic proclamations like she's just strutted out of AStreetcar Named Desire: "If you were married to anyone else, you'd be so bored, you'd kill yourself!"

Even when presented in a grounded moment — say, brushing her teeth while crying and screaming at her husband — her face is fully in make-up, lest the gloss of her physical perfection be dulled by a mundane activity. Because of all of this, Melinda doesn't feel like a person, but perfume ad. She is a shallow reflection, envisioned by her mercurial husband. 

Credit: 20th Century Studios

Not as sleazy as it ought to be

If you're going to go trashy battle of the sexes, go for it. For years, Lyne pushed the boundaries of sex onscreen, creating love scenes that were undeniably hot, even when they were disturbing. By comparison, Deep Waterfeels like a made-for-TV movie.

Sure, there are sex scenes with some nudity. But there's a jarring conservativeness about their execution. Most sex acts happen out of frame, implied by sounds or a vigorous hand gesture or fingers plucking an implied pubic hair from a pouting lip. There's heated chemistry between the warring spouses, but no visuals as illicit and daring as Lyne has brought before. Meanwhile, his contemporary in steamy cinema, Paul Verhoeven, has Benedettaon Hulu. So why would you pick Deep Waterto get hot and bothered over, when most of the movie is about fear to perform and sexual frustration?  

SEE ALSO: 'Benedetta' is a sexy nun biopic with wicked wit

To Lyne's credit, he tries to make cuckolding into a fascinating and frustrating fetish. At times, he teases the audience just as Melinda teases Vic. It's clever and cruelly amusing, like when a sex scene heats up only to abruptly cut to a children's soccer game. These collisions are jarring, almost comical — but they are wickedly fun.

However, Gone Girl, Affleck's last go-round with an aggressively unsatisfied wife, resulted in slit throats and jaw-dropping twists. Vic matching wits with a beaming real estate entrepreneur (Finn Wittrock) and a nosy neighbor (Tracy Letts) just can't compare. It's a strange thing to call a Lyne movie tame, but by his standards, Deep Wateris. 

Credit: 20th Century Studios

Deep Water's implied voyeurism is its most illicit thrill 

What's most profound about Deep Wateris the threat that aging has brought to the Van Allen May-December marriage. His stamina on a mountain bike, collection of cultured friends, and abundant wealth (along with the fact he looks like Ben Affleck) imply that Vic was once a real catch, a most eligible bachelor. There was a time when Melinda must have felt as lucky to land him as he did to land her. But their 6-year-old child is a constant reminder of how time has raced by, and frustratingly so — as the kiddo blares annoying songs while her mother recovers from a gnarly hangover. While Vic is at an age where he can settle down, retire, and enjoy the easy life, he's chasing his youth in chasing his wife. This romance that was once so fun has now festered into a toxic game of cat-and-mouse. But the game is more grueling than entertaining — for us and them.

I don't pretend to have any idea about what went down in Affleck and De Arma's real-life relationship. But even if you didn't actively follow celebrity gossip during the pandemic, it was impossible not to notice them. They were a dazzling yet confounding couple, as their relationship seemed in-our-faces yet elusive in details. At a distance, they had a mystique. And before we could look closer, they were done. No explanation, no storyline resolved. So perhaps it's that idling curiosity that makes Deep Waterintriguing beyond its in-film aspects. There's a voyeuristic lure to looking at their combative but crackling onscreen chemistry and wondering how it compared to the real thing. Maybe we look at Vic's mid-life crisis and then wonder if Affleck could relate. 

Perhaps it's tawdry to speculate on the personal lives of stars while we watch their onscreen performances. However, the unavoidable and enigmatic allure of De Arflack 2020 makes separating this movie and their real-life relationship impossible. Or perhaps it's the performances, which feel earthy and wild, even as the movie flounders to make sense of them. Either way, while Deep Watercan't successfully float its murder mystery, it cruises on the chaotic chemistry of its stars, on and off-screen.

Deep Wateris now streaming on Hulu.

Topics Hulu Streaming