Fatal Attraction review: A decent thriller undone by a ridiculous ending
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The 20th century was a golden era for stories about unstable women — see: Play Misty for Me, Misery, The Crush, Basic Instinct, and of course, Fatal Attraction — but generally screenwriters didn't offer much of an explanation for their villain's bad behavior beyond, "She crazy."
The new Paramount+ series adaptation of Fatal Attraction aims to remedy the reductive vision of the 1987 original, reimagining how the story of a married man's affair with a troubled female colleague might play out in the (somewhat) more enlightened era of the late 2000s. Anchored by arresting performances from Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan, Fatal Attraction is a solid thriller about a man felled by hubris and handsome-white-guy privilege — but the show undermines its entire message with an infuriatingly dumb ending.
Los Angeles Deputy DA Dan Gallagher (Jackson) is used to things going his way. He's got a smart and successful wife, Beth (Amanda Peet), a bright little girl named Ellen (Obi-Wan Kenobi's Vivien Lyra Blair), and a career trajectory that consistently trends upward. The son of a well-known judge, Dan is known around the courthouse as a stand-up guy who says things like, "Bad decisions lead to bad outcomes. You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes." But when he experiences an unexpected disappointment at work, Dan ignores his own warning and has a fling with Alex Forrest (Caplan), an intelligent and enigmatic victims' advocate.
Michael Moriatis/Paramount+ Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson in 'Fatal Attraction'
Now for the bad outcome: When we first meet Dan, he's wearing blue prison scrubs and applying for parole after serving 15 years for Alex's murder. Fatal Attraction tracks Dan's story via these two timelines, following the affair and its aftermath, as well as his post-prison life. Paroled but still a felon, Dan enlists his best friend, retired detective Mike Gerard (Toby Huss), to help him clear his name — while also trying to reconnect with Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels), now a college student, and Beth, who got remarried to her business partner, Arthur (Brian Goodman).
For an erotic thriller, Fatal Attraction gets off to a distressingly sleepy start. The pilot — co-written by showrunner Alexandra Cunningham and original Fatal screenwriter James Dearden — is erratically paced and heavy on table-setting scenes that establish Dan as a good guy with a lot to lose. His fling with Alex doesn't begin until episode 2, which seems like a grave miscalculation. At the risk of sounding shallow, a Fatal Attraction pilot with no sex feels as pointless as House of the Dragon with no dragons.
Things pick up from there, however, and Fatal Attraction begins laying out a provocative case study of how sexual politics have evolved from the '80s to today. With eight episodes instead of 119 minutes to explore the story, this Fatal Attraction gives us more insight into Alex — including her upbringing by a serially unfaithful dad (Cliff Chamberlain) and withholding mom (Lena Georgas) — as well as how she orchestrates her brief relationship with Dan. As the season progresses, the same events are presented from Alex's perspective as well as Beth's, a strategy that gives both characters the dimension they lacked in the film. And in the present-day timeline, Dan's efforts to clear his name are continually stymied by people who found his original, victim-blaming defense at trial grotesque and offensive. "I heard you describe someone unstable and scared and lost as evil," scoffs one of Alex's ex-boyfriends (Michael Cassidy). "You gave her death for needing help."
Michael Moriatis/Paramount+ Joshua Jackson, Amanda Peet, and Lizzy Caplan in 'Fatal Attraction'
Cunningham and her co-creator Kevin J. Hines keep psychology and mental health at the forefront of their storytelling through young adult Ellen, who's writing her thesis on Carl Jung and his collaborator/mistress Toni Wolff. A sizable portion of Ellen's storyline consists of listening to or discussing lectures about Jung — all of which have an implied relation to Alex's mental state. "Acknowledging our shadow means admitting our capacity for darkness, and that makes us afraid," explains Ellen's professor (David Meunier) in one lecture on Jung's concept of "shadow" selves. Later, Ellen delivers a mini-monologue on "the medial woman," one of Toni Wolff's four female archetypes: "If she misinterprets the messages that she's getting, she will destroy you."
The conceit is almost comically unsubtle. But Jirrels — who brings a captivating composure to Ellen as she tentatively gets to know her dad again — keeps it from becoming fully ridiculous. Jackson and Caplan, meanwhile, are two actors who consistently reside in the "can do no wrong" category, and Fatal Attraction won't change that. Caplan's limpid gaze can shift from sultry to stony with disquieting ease, and she makes Alex's hard-right turn into obsession appropriately chilling. Juggling dual timelines as Dan, Jackson is equally persuasive as a powerful man used to charming his way through obstacles and the humbled, chastened felon navigating a post-prison reality.
Fatal Attraction's problems have nothing to do with the stars or the other talented actors in the ensemble. Instead, the drama stabs itself in the heart with its ludicrous finale. The resolution to the murder mystery is largely devoid of logic, and the final minutes deliver a cliffhanger twist that's equally out of nowhere — one that reverts to the type of lazy, "she crazy" characterization the series ostensibly wanted to vanquish. Those may not be fatal flaws, but much like Alex Forrest, they're impossible to ignore. Grade: C+
The first three episodes of Fatal Attraction premiere Sunday, April 30, on Paramount+.
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