• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • 5 DOUBLE-U’S
    • MASTHEAD
    • DISTRIBUTION
    • ADVERTISE
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

FILM REVIEW: “FATAL AFFAIR”

Written by JAKE MULLIGAN Posted July 28, 2020 Filed Under: A+E, Film

Image from Fatal Affair, courtesy Netflix

Film Review: Fatal Affair
Co-written and directed by Peter Sullivan. US, 2020, 89 minutes.
Available on Netflix.

Film critic Charles Bramesco keeps a ranked list of every “Netflix original” at Vulture, with more than 400 movies already in the books. To him, they’re netflicks—his phrase for the company’s self-distributed features. And while “a netflick is any movie released by Netflix,” he says, some are more netflick than others—the ones “characterized by their canned Muzak, aggressive color-grading, and more than anything, a lurching overlongness.” For me the definition befits no single film so much as Fatal Affair, an insultingly low-effort genre movie the streaming conglomerate just produced from scratch.

As the title indicates, Fatal Affair is a knockoff of Fatal Attraction (1987), although it’s been gender-flipped and made completely sexless to better follow contemporary fashion. Now in the Michael Douglas role is Nia Long as one Ellie Graves, a successful lawyer married to the boring and borderline-celibate Marcus (Stephen Bishop). And filling the shoes of Glenn Close is Omar Epps, playing master hacker David Hammond. He insinuates himself into Ellie’s life, takes her out to dinner, and plays off her marital vulnerabilities, all with dialogue that’s blatantly functional and borrowed from better movies. The story really begins when David kisses Ellie in the restroom, and she cuts it off to go home early—a more accurate title would be Fatal Makeout. In fact hardly anybody has sex in this self-styled erotic thriller, but that’s probably for the best given no single performance or character passes for human. 

Of course David goes bunny-boiler after that, hitting all the standards: He continues to contact Ellie even after she blocks his numbers, meets the faithful spouse under false pretenses, attacks the best friend, and hides out in the house after dark—there’s not a single fresh conceit or setup, the movie failing to provide its viewers and its subgenre with even that simplest of courtesies (the potential counterargument that the woman-led Fatal Affair provides a more realistic treatment of stalking and harassment than its predecessors is a nonstarter because like most other made-for-TV movies the emphasis here is on plot beats and not character psychology).

Image from Fatal Affair, courtesy Netflix

The one thing that’s almost a new idea: David spies on Ellie with tech redolent of the present American surveillance state, because as mentioned he’s a world-class hacker—a concept the film presents seriously despite eventually revealing his network password to be “Ellie_Graves”. But even that surveillance deal is just lazy window dressing, hardly even factored into the narrative or set pieces: Fatal Affair can’t even turn the digital-stalking angle into a worthwhile gimmick, much less explore it for something more.

As directed by Peter Sullivan, whose recent credits include holidaysploitation movies for the Hallmark and Lifetime channels, the film is just barely competent. And it’s not only the presentation of David’s computer-hacking work that’s ironic midnight movie-bad—the rest of the film is similarly textured. Ellie is supposed to be a lawyer, but the screenplay doesn’t even bother trying to depict that. Instead we see her in a series of pseudodomestic scenes where she’s doing yoga, running on the beach, and looking thoughtfully into mirrors—it’s pharmaceutical-ad material, you half expect side effects to start running along the bottom of the screen. The sound design is tinny and oddly silent. The performances are somnambulant. And large portions are flatly blue-tinted (see above)—the color palette could be summed up as “consumer electronics.” Fatal Affair has not one cinematic pleasure to offer.

Watching Fatal Affair in close proximity to genuine erotic thrillers from the Fatal Attraction era, even midlevel entries like Poison Ivy (1992) or Body of Evidence (1993), you realize that’s exactly what’s missing from a movie like this—pleasure. And not just sex, or satisfyingly cathartic violence, but all the pleasures of genre filmmaking—even baseline stuff like playful story twists and expressive acting. Nothing of the sort can be found in this televisual aberration, which like a space-age B-movie has been made only to fill space on a virtual marquee. And even more than most of its peers on that queue, Fatal Affair demonstrates that a netflick is often something less than a real movie. [★]

JAKE MULLIGAN
More from author
  • JAKE MULLIGAN
    https://digboston.com/author/jake-mulligan/
    IN MEMORIAM: JOAN MICKLIN SILVER
  • JAKE MULLIGAN
    https://digboston.com/author/jake-mulligan/
    FILM REVIEW: "ON THE ROCKS"
  • JAKE MULLIGAN
    https://digboston.com/author/jake-mulligan/
    NOTES ON: "HAM ON RYE"
  • JAKE MULLIGAN
    https://digboston.com/author/jake-mulligan/
    FILM REVIEW: "CITY HALL"

Filed Under: A+E, Film Tagged With: arts, Film, slider

WHAT’S NEW

WU ASSERTS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS IN HER CAMPAIGN

WU ASSERTS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS IN HER CAMPAIGN

STREET MEDICS BOLSTER PROTESTS IN MORE WAYS THAN YOU MAY REALIZE

STREET MEDICS BOLSTER PROTESTS IN MORE WAYS THAN YOU MAY REALIZE

HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO APPEASE A CONTROVERSIAL COP

HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO APPEASE A CONTROVERSIAL COP

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. HONORED, SPEAKERS ADDRESS RACISM

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. HONORED, SPEAKERS ADDRESS RACISM

FORMER MASS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE PREDICTED VIOLENCE BEFORE ASSAULT ON CAPITOL

FORMER MASS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE PREDICTED VIOLENCE BEFORE ASSAULT ON CAPITOL

PRISON HORRORS BY THE NUMBERS

PRISON HORRORS BY THE NUMBERS

Primary Sidebar

HEMPIRE FREEDOM PACK 25% OFF

FEATURED EVENT

Most Popular

  • APPOINTED SOMERVILLE OFFICIAL SPURS OUTRAGE WITH TWEETS FROM DC MOB SCENE by MARC LEVY
  • Aerial View Parkman Bandstand at Boston Common. CC BY-SA 4.0 2017 by AbhiSuryawanshi. NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM by MATTHEW ANDREWS
  • VIDEO: COP WHO BRAGGED THAT HE HIT PROTESTERS SHOWS HOW BAD APPLES THRIVE IN BOSTON by CHRIS FARAONE
  • PRISON HORRORS BY THE NUMBERS by SARAH BETANCOURT
  • IT’S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT’S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT? by ZACK HUFFMAN

READ CURRENT MEMBER EDITION

DIG Member 1.9 – 11/26/20

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

Footer

digbos

HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO A HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO APPEASE A CONTROVERSIAL COP https://digboston.com/no-justice-how-officials-in-one-mass-town-took-extraordinary-measures-to-appease-a-controversial-cop/ #ArlingtonMA #police #reform #cop #racism #controversy #BlackLivesMatter #Massachusetts
Ghost kitchens simply don’t have a need for host Ghost kitchens simply don’t have a need for hosts, servers, bartenders, bussers … What happens to those #jobs if virtual kitchens continue to flourish? https://digboston.com/ghost-story-virtual-kitchens-appear-to-be-the-next-big-thing-but-at-what-cost/ #restaurant #labor #work #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
“I don’t think we’re going to wake up on Jan “I don’t think we’re going to wake up on Jan. 7 in the same country we went to bed in on the 6th.” https://digboston.com/former-mass-gubernatorial-candidate-predicted-violence-before-assault-on-capitol/ #politics #Massachusetts #national #Capitol #WashingtonDC #MAGA
RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL http RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL https://digboston.com/radical-and-relevant-the-life-of-harry-brill/ #obituary #organizer #radical #sociologist #democracy #politics @UMassBoston @BklynCollege411 @UCBerkeley #Boston #Massachusetts #NewYorkCity #Berkeley #California
NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 #PROTEST ON BOSTON CO NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 #PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM https://digboston.com/no-honeymoon-for-biden-1-20-protest-on-boston-common-4-pm/ #opinion #progressive #left #action #inauguration #Boston #Massachusetts
Light and sweet and hoppy, we’re loving this lat Light and sweet and hoppy, we’re loving this latest incarnation of a #beer that’s been in the making for months. https://digboston.com/video-jacks-abby-x-boston-celtics-pride-and-parquet-hoppy-lager-unboxing-tasting/ #fun #video #review #Boston #Massachusetts
Jostling for position and influence are the disadv Jostling for position and influence are the disadvantaged candidates, existing industry participants, and municipalities … https://digboston.com/the-road-to-home-delivery-pt-5-dogs-in-the-fight-identifying-the-players/ #cannabis #politics #analysis #Massachusetts
The candidates will be interviewed about the upcom The candidates will be interviewed about the upcoming race. https://digboston.com/wu-and-campbell-to-speak-at-mayoral-candidate-webinar/ #politics #mayor #campaign #Boston #Massachusetts
Participants took to the streets in the hope of sw Participants took to the streets in the hope of swaying the Biden administration. https://digboston.com/on-national-day-of-action-protesters-call-for-eviction-moratorium/ #housing #justice #protest #national #Boston #Massachusetts
“They refuse to respond to this humanitarian cri “They refuse to respond to this humanitarian crisis where people really need them. We’re just ignoring this problem and it’s getting worse and worse.” https://digboston.com/its-harder-than-ever-to-find-a-bathroom-in-boston-whats-the-city-doing-about-it/ #politics #unhoused #homeless #bathroom #public #health #Boston #Massachusetts
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Submissions

Advertise

Privacy Policy

Customer Service

Distribution

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]