‘Deep Water’ – Review
Love hangs on the edge of a knife in director Adrian Lyne’s chilling psychological thriller Deep Water and this is a film of scary twists and turns as it showcases what awaits on the dark side of love.
A married couple, Vic and Melinda Van Allen (Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas), who have fallen out of love with each other begin playing deadly mind games against one another that begin seeing those around them dying.
The concept of love has long been celebrated in the works of cinema and every week we find a new tale of two people who are effortlessly drawn together by a deep passion and desire to be with one another completely and totally. Deep Water is not that film. This is a dark, twisted and psychologically intense cinematic experience of a very perverse and warped love story and director Adrian Lyne, who is regarded as the master of the erotic thriller, crafts an incredibly compelling and invasive story that draws you inwards to its dark narrative. Best described as a psychological character study, Deep Water focuses in on the highly unusual relationship that is shared between married couple Vic and Melina Van Allen, here portrayed by Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, whose open relationship takes on a heightened level of abnormality and macabre jealousy, and when passions start to heat up the body count begins to rise.
For Ben Affleck, who has long been regarded for his portrayal of quintessential stoic American characters, Deep Water is a real 360 performance from the actor. As self-made millionaire Vic Van Allen, he’s seemingly a man with everything. A beautiful wife, a gorgeous house and a doting daughter, yet there’s something incredibly off about Vic and this is where Affleck’s performance excels. Best described as a buttoned-down psycho, Vic is living a shell of a life with his wife Melinda, who frequently partakes in extra-marital affairs, all under her husband’s allowance as part of their severe open marriage. But it’s becoming clear that Vic’s a bit over being a cuckold for his wife’s desires and her lovers, or ‘friends’ as she calls them, have a habit of turning up dead. Affleck’s quiet performance is particularly chilling and his disquiet actions hide a fit of dangerous morbid jealousy that is beginning to spill over. Affleck keeps audiences on the edge of a razor thanks to his performance as Vic and the strange threat of his performance is sure to get under your skin.
Playing off of Affleck is Ana de Armas as his openly flirtatious, sexy and loud wife Melinda and like Affleck, this is a role that she’s never played before. Severely unhappy in her relationship with her husband, Melinda is allowed to openly take other lovers and flaunts her sexuality whenever she can. Not bogged down by any type of morality, Melinda is not afraid to bring younger men into her bed and is more than happy to flaunt this type of behaviour directly at her husband. But it has a very dark effect. Armas’ performance is shaped by a definite style of love/hate for Affleck’s Vic and their interactions together are at one moment extremely affectionate before the next turning intensely bitter and violent. Her performance as Melinda is extremely raw and she gives Affleck a run for his money for the audience’s attention thanks to her flirty outbursts.
Deep Water is very original and different type of psychological thriller as it’s almost a character study of Vic’s jealousies and the dark undercurrent that exists in open marriages. With its back and forth game of cat and mouse intensity played between its two characters, Deep Water keeps you on edge the whole time and you never know quite what is going to happen next as its narrative unfolds. Lyne also raises the erotic nature of the film’s subject matter, and Deep Water is a very seductive and brazenly sexual film. There’s a hell of a lot of flesh shown here and Ana de Armas is a pure sex kitten as Melinda and the flaunting of her sexuality is a key part of the narrative’s structure and its dangerous consequences. This combination of steamy sex and disquieting characters makes for a thriller that hooks you in and there are some very grim moments that are brought to the screen in Deep Water.
Deep Water is a very original movie-going experience and its narrative and characters have a deep effect on the audience. From beginning to end you never know where the narrative is going to lead you and the shocking final moments will have you in disbelief because as far as thrillers go they normally don’t end like this. Forget about good and evil, these concepts don’t apply here, there’s far more grey space on show in this picture and the results and ending are extremely fitting with the story at large. Deep Water is different from any other psychological thriller I can remember seeing and it’s twisted characters and even more warped narrative is sure to have you gripped from beginning to end.
Deep Water is a psychological thriller like no other. With its darkly original characters and hyper-seaxual narrative, you’ll be hooked from beginning to end and if your seeking a movie that will get under your skin with some complex scares then this one is the movie for you.
Image: Prime Video
