Fatal Attraction Blu-ray delivers great video and mediocre audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
Michael Douglas plays Dan Gallagher, a New York attorney who has a tryst with seductive Alex
Forrest (Glenn Close) while his wife (Anne Archer) is away. Dan later shrugs off the affair as a
mistake and considers it over. But Alex won’t be ignored. Not now, not tomorrow, not ever…
even if it means destroying Dan’s family to keep him.
What's the allure of Fatal Attraction? An admittedly good but nevertheless
by-the-numbers thriller, Director Adrian Lyne's (Unfaithful) most
popular picture features strong
performances, solid direction, and an unnerving atmosphere, but its reliance on blasé plot
developments and its
predictable, unimaginative finale does nothing to truly elevate it above its peers. Perhaps it's the
personal, "it could happen to anyone" nature of the story, but no matter the reason, Fatal
Attraction remains a staple of American pop culture. Nominated for six Oscars, including
Best
Picture, but leaving the ceremony without anything for the shelf, the film beat out a number of
superior pictures for the honor of being among the five finalists, including Full Metal Jacket,
Empire of the Sun, The Untouchables,
and RoboCop.
Say, do you like rabbit stew?
Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas, Romancing the
Stone) is a happily-married New York lawyer. Working a case with a publishing house
regarding a novel that may find itself at the center of a lawsuit, he meets editor Alex Forrest
(Glenn Close, Air Force One).
With his wife Beth (Anne Archer, Patriot Games) out of
town, Dan enjoys a quiet dinner with Alex that leads to a passionate encounter.
Though seemingly agreed upon as nothing more than a one-night affair between two consenting
adults, Alex rejects the fact that Dan needs to leave her to return to his established life where he
works a demanding job and enjoys the company of his loving wife and daughter. Alex begins
stalking Dan, her aggressive pursuit becoming more serious as time goes on, leading Dan to fear
every ring of the phone and knock on the door while doing all he can to convince Alex to leave
him -- and his family -- alone.
Perhaps its best asset -- and almost overshadowing the superficial plot and textbook
developments -- is the film's nonchalance towards the affair during its onset. Both in the film
and behind the
camera, Fatal
Attraction takes on a rather simplistic air that seems to minimize the importance of the
romantic tryst not to the story but rather in the lives of its characters. In front of the camera,
Alex and
Dan take their chance encounter in stride, the attraction they share electric but not overtly so.
The rendezvous begins and ends with nary a hint as to the consequences that will later evolve
either
physically or emotionally. Fatal Attraction plays it perfectly in the context of the story,
framing the one-night affair as a throwaway happening in the lives of the characters, with
neither appearing
particularly
interested in taking it to a deeper, more emotional, more cerebral level. On the other
side of the Camera, Lyne gives these scenes an easygoing, pedestrian feel, never hinting at the
moral
issues or emotional consequences and allowing it to play out with an innocent quality that never
hints at the deadly obsession to come. The camera simply observes the goings-on and allows the
actors to sell the audience on the affair, and Close and Douglas do so by lending to the set-up a
feeling that their encounter will be as harmless as a white bunny rabbit with long ears and pink
eyes.
Despite a predictable story line, Fatal Attraction plays out with an unsettling, nail-biting
tone thanks in large part to the performance of Glenn Close. Her character's psychotic and
obsessive tendencies don't seem overtly obvious when she seduces Dan, but she unleashes a
frightening inner-demon early on in the affair, not when he breaks it off but rather when he
simply must leave her arms not even to return to his family but to go to work. Her clingy
personality slowly molds into an obsessive stalker that morphs into a jealous rage that would
have her deny Dan his life for the sin of his denial of her happiness. Lyne effectively captures the
tone on both sides of the affair; a lingering shot of Alex as she sits on the floor, mascara running
down her face, blankly staring into the distance as she flips a light on and off, perhaps
symbolizes the last few flickers of sanity fading away inside of her. On the other side, Lyne uses
everyday
occurrences to great effect to demonstrate the fear and anger building inside Dan. The ringing of
a telephone, for instance, becomes a potential harbinger of evil that may reveal the secret and
tear his family apart. No matter the scene, Fatal Attraction rises above its otherwise
routine story thanks to fine performances in front of the camera and the steady hand behind it.
Fatal Attraction arrives on Blu-ray with a good 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. The
print features the occasional pop, particularly over the opening credits, but looks pleasantly clear
and fresh, all things considered. The image consistently appears the slightest bit dim with soft focus
cropping up over several scenes. The disc also sports adequate levels of detail throughout and a
decent, but not eye-catching, color palette. Much of the film takes place in interior locales, some
with low levels of light, but most every scene appears rendered nicely with crisp details in the
foreground. Black levels and flesh tones are also sufficiently rendered. Grain is slightly visible in
some scenes, practically
nonexistent in others, and in a few shots it looks static across solid backgrounds. Nevertheless, its
presence is nowhere near as heavy as seen in the other June 9, 2009 Adrian Lyne Paramount
release, Indecent Proposal.
Fatal Attraction looks quite good for an aging catalogue title.
Fatal Attraction debuts on Blu-ray with a lackluster Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless
soundtrack.
Likely a victim of a terribly uninteresting sound design, this soundtrack rarely leaves the comfort
of
the center channel. Dialogue is delivered adequately through the center, though sometimes
fighting with ambient noise that seems to come almost exclusively from the middle, too.
Occasionally, they
play over one another making words slightly difficult to make out. Dialogue reproduction never
falters in quieter scenes, though. The track delivers practically no ambience at all; were one
simply
listening to the track rather than watching the movie, it's likely one would miss completely the
presence of a rainstorm in chapter three. It's an odd sequence, the visuals portraying characters
scrambling to dodge the downpour, yet the soundtrack almost completely ignores the rain. In
the
following scene, soft piano music is heard playing through the front left and right speakers, and
several outdoor scenes feature chirping birds and other nuanced sounds of nature. Such
occurrences are the exception to the rule, for this one features little play in the front right and
left
channels and next to nothing in the rears. The subwoofer takes a vacation during
this one, too. All in all, Fatal Attraction makes for one of the most bland listening
experiences yet on Blu-ray.
Fatal Attraction comes to Blu-ray with several bonus features. First up is a commentary
track with Director Adrian Lyne. Despite his self-proclaimed bad memory, Lyne serves up a dry
but
informative track, speaking on the casting, the themes of the film and the way it is played by the
characters, shooting the love scenes, and more. There are some moments of dead air in the
delivery.
Forever Fatal: Remembering 'Fatal Attraction' (480p, 28:16) is a piece that looks at the
history of the project, including an examination of the screenplay, the process of assembling the
cast and crew,
developing the characters, shooting the erotic sequences, and other tidbits. Social
Attraction (480p, 10:00) examines the picture's allure with audiences in the 1980s, framed
in
the context of the feminist movement. The piece also looks at the psychology of the characters
and
the story's impact on them. Visual Attraction (480p, 19:39) focuses attention on the
look
of the
film, including the shooting style, makeup, and costuming. Concluding the supplements is a
collection of rehearsal footage (480p, 7:09), an alternate ending with director introduction (480p,
0:16 & 1080i, 11:51), and the film's theatrical trailer (1080p, 1:34).
Perhaps the film played a bit better in 1987, but Fatal Attraction now seems not an
Oscar-caliber picture but rather simply a good movie marked by solid performances on both sides of
the camera but featuring a by-the-book plot and a routine conclusion. Glenn Close and her 80s
hairdo continue to fascinate with her descent into madness over a seemingly trifle affair that winds
up scarring more than one man's conscience. Well-paced, scary at times, engaging, and even
somewhat memorable, the film plays well but doesn't hold up as an all-time classic. Paramount's
Blu-ray release generally impresses. Featuring a steady and pleasing 1080p transfer, a passable but
nevertheless lackluster soundtrack, and a few bonus materials, fans shouldn't hesitate to pick this
one up.
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Paramount Home Entertainment has announced that they will bring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close's 'Fatal Attraction' and Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore's 'Indecent Proposal' to Blu-ray on June 9th. For both films, video will be presented in 1.85:1 1080p AVC accompanied ...
