Sun 09 Aug 2009 |
|
 When Fatal Attraction hit the silver screen I was just three years old so I sort of missed the zeitgeist it captured which won it six Oscar nominations, four wins and 14 other nominations. I am not going to turn film critic here not least because I really like both Michael Douglas and Glen Close as an actress and their performance was nothing less than electric, but I do have some serious issues with the entire message it’s trying to project. I mean, let’s look at this a little coldly, our particular affection for the individual actors and their performances put firmly to one side, and see if we can understand what it’s trying to project. Michael Douglas’ character is a successful lawyer with a hot wife, a great kind and a successful career. So, why would he then go ahead and have an opportunistic weekend-long affair with Glen Close? Is it because: 1. She looks hot, fun and available? 2. He wants to experience again what it’s like to be a bachelor without the loneliness and sense of failure which sometimes accompanies this role? 3. His wife and him did not have sex the night before she left to go and see her parents? 4. He has some commitment issues which are unresolved and brought to the fore by his impending house move and larger mortgage commitment? 5. He wants to feel again like a man whom women want rather than a husband and a father? The point is that whichever of these you decide is at the heart of the issue, and there could be more than just one of them, it reflects so badly upon men that if we take it at face value we’ll have no choice other than to think that no man ever deserves to have a faithful wife or deserve a modicum of trust in his relationship. If, for instance, as Fatal Attraction seems to suggest all that’s required for a man to stray is the opportunity provided by his wife and family being away and a sexy blonde throwing herself at him then we have a serious problem in our society. Of course, Fatal Attraction explores more than this. It appealed to women because they were fascinated with the way their worst nightmare can come true and it appealed to men because here they sympathized with a ‘great guy’ who made a ‘small’ mistake and suddenly had to pay a hefty price for it. In terms of this it is a cleverly concocted piece of cinema aimed squarely at the unvoiced concerns of its target audience and the box office appeal speaks of the success of its targeting. The on-screen cavorting of Michael Douglas and Glen Close did not help viewing figures either though by today’s standards these are positively tame. My personal sympathies lie with Glen Close’s character. “How come all the good guys are married?” she asks of Michael Douglas who looks bemused, unable to reply. To my mind she echoes the woman on the edge, her clock ticking and her focus changing from building a successful career to finding someone to share her life with and getting tired of those who are willing to take advantage for their own pleasure and refuse to give anything back. Friends I mention this to are horrified. To most women she represents the horrifying archetype of ‘the other woman’, the temptress, the marriage-wrecker, the husband-stealer, but I see that it takes two to tango in this dance and the man’s part is crucial to it happening. That married women are so quick to close ranks is suggestive of the insecurity of marriage and the need to reaffirm, to the minds of many, that husbands who stray may be idiots who think with what’s in their pants first but eventually will come to their sense and go back to where things are really good for them. Yet in the film itself the script shows intelligence beyond its requirements. To Michael Douglas’ assertion that he is happily married and feels lucky, for instance, Glen Close’s character asks: “So what are you doing here with me?”. To me that is the entire point at the heart of the film and the question we really need to answer. If he is there, there clearly has to be a reason which goes beyond his need to lose some sperm. And if that’s the case then Glen Close’s character has a right to expect more and, quite rightly, also feels deeply misled and angry. What happens next of course takes the development arc of this psychological thriller into the inevitable Hollywood territory of the action drama and here the message becomes even more fudged because the issues of threat and survival tend to be black and white and devoid of the different shades of meaning usually found on moral overtones. That, however, is Hollywood and the imperatives of box office success. We, as intelligent viewers, ought to be able to get past the artifice and tap into the substance lying beneath. That the film was such a huge hit suggests it touched a nerve somewhere. Guys saw it and thought, women saw it and felt. The happy ending which brought a family which had been torn apart by a guy’s stupidity, back together again is here incidental. What made the film work was the fact that both men and women were able to successfully project themselves in the roles of Michael Douglas and his on-screen wife, Anne Archer, and really think the unthinkable ‘what-if’ which they had never openly think about. In this coyness we see the issues lying at the heart of many relationships. We get together with someone, begin to forge a life together and we become content in reacting to the circumstances we face rather than take real stock of where we are, understand why and work to make it as fulfilling as possible as the only sound way to forge ahead. Until we actually understand this and begin to take full responsibility for our actions in a relationship we will be trapped in the role of the viewer in Fatal Attraction, fascinated by the scenario they watch on-screen, unable to resolve the issues which have been stirred up inside them and rooting for Anne Archer as she provides final closure for herself and her husband, saving the day and keeping her family together. Alisa Miller is the author of the best-selling Ultimate Guide to the Perfect Relationship her articles on love, sex and relationships appear on many websites and online and print magazines. She maintains a profile on Amazon. Feel free to link to this article. If you would like to discuss content for your magazine or website contact Alisa. Comments (3)Subscribe to this comment's feedI saw it
I actually saw this when it first came out and I must admit I was more focused on the hot sex scenes than anything else but yes when you put it this way I can see that there are issues it does not answer.
,
August 09, 2009
...
at the end of the day he just wanted to get in for a bit of fun but his wife wos far better looking there are a lot of married girls who look at some men and they just want to fuck the brains out of them but they dont becouse they know its not wright thats what i think any way but who am i to say so.
,
August 10, 2009
...
Hmmmn, some pretty good food for thought.
Question: Did you know that the original ending has Alex (G. Close) commit suicide yet it looks as if Dan (M. Douglas) has killed her and is arrested for murder? ~ This does not change what you are stating, it does adhere more to the psychosis of Alex. Makes the movie less popular. And we possibly do not have this example to have this forum to hash these relationship issues out with. ~ Fact is- some people like to cheat. They lack a truthful desire to allow for themselves to embrace the intimacy they have fostered. Shy? Bashful? Narcissist? Abusive past? Sexually non-satiated? Too many possibilities to run with on this, so let us look at the basics: two contemporaries, both progressive, finding similarities and hearing accolades that have not been uttered to/by either of them in a) a long time, b) an alluring manner. What should have been a novel crush- because he is a good guy is dashed on a complementary lust drive. If she really wanted a good guy: she would have gone home alone, his acts undermine her stated wants. His pursuit because his family is away is a rouse, he wants to do as other 'successful men' have done- maintain the wife and a mistress or a myriad fling with someone that remembers what it was like to have to pursue someone and not find complacency in what they perceive marriage to be. The promise, or the breakdown of the promise starts with Dan and Beth (A. Archer) during their courtship. He not wishing to loose her fails to communicate honestly. They get married, he still never owns up to some moment or feeling or desire and this gets further complicated with having a child and progressing through the law firm. His own sub-conscious is railing at him for 'existing' within a little lie which gives him the justification in committing his act. He feels broken, and is looking for someone else who may well be as broken in which to learn from and repair that part of the psyche. So it is a given that he would fall for Alex, it is part of his own self destruction that he would act on that emotion. It is part of her self destruction that she would try to kill herself in an effort to attain attention from her obsessive desire and then to try and eliminate the object of his love. I think in the simplest of conclusions: the lust/love see-saw that starts a relationship and helps it grow and blossom into something more when you add trust and belief was flawed from the start for our Dan and Alex. Neither of them had ever experienced and appreciated unconditional love and we not 'whole' enough to accept the changes that life brings. Their reliance on being physically expressive of their emotions is a lonesome limitation. As always, thanks! Take care! ~K~
,
August 10, 2009
Write comment |
Related Articles :
» The best way to spend this Valentine’s day
A lot of people associate Saint Valentine’s day with mandatory torture where you need to try hard to be original and pull some sort of mind blowing stunt or you’ll be doomed to fail and the whole world is going to crush you starting with...
» Why we all need to be rebels
At school my favourite book was J. D, Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’. Holden Caulfield’s voice seemed to me, back then, to puncture the pomposity and artificial sense of superiority affected by adults and act like a...
» The three ages of womanhood and the confusion which reigns amongst genders
The days when animal names were the exclusive preserve of seek-and-destroy SEAL teams and…well, erm, animals seem to belong, firmly, to the last century. In the 21st century the ages of a woman seem to be described by jungle-themed predatory...
» It comes round once a year
Today it’s Friday and as I am writing this I am conscious of the fact that officially I am a year older. It is, of course, a biological year and as such it has many different meanings, depending on how I choose to look at it.
» He is in love with a younger woman
Most emails I get are from women who are experiencing some issue in their relationship with a partner. This one this week stood out because it is from a man who is facing a personal issue. We shall call him Mike. He is a successful professional who...
