Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Director: Adrian Lyne
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A glossy, Hitchcock-by-numbers thriller, with Douglas as a happily married New York attorney whose clandestine weekend of passion with business associate Close provokes the wrath of a woman scorned when he tries to give her the brush-off. Angered by his insensitive chauvinism, Close becomes increasingly unhinged, progressing from insistent phone calls to acid attacks on Douglas' car, and finally to physical attacks on his family. Lyne employs the same flashy imagery as in Nine 2 Weeks, but his overheated visual style seems curiously inappropriate to James Dearden's tepid script. The film finally comes to the boil in the brilliantly staged, crowd-pleasing finale - a nail-biting showdown between a knife-wielding Close, a frightened wife and an enraged Douglas. A predictable dog's dinner of Pavlovian thriller clichés, this will appeal strongly to those who think women should be kept on a short lead.Author: NF
Cast & crew
Director: Adrian Lyne
Producer: Stanley R Jaffe, Sherry Lansing
Cast: Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, Stuart Pankin, Ellen Foley, Fred Gwynne full cast
Duration: 120 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations












What do you think?
Post your review now