The Thriller Is Sexy Again in Ben Affleck’s Deep Water.

The director Adrian Lyne’s first film in 20 years represents a comeback for the type of sultry, adult drama that used to pack theaters.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Ben Affleck, resplendent with stubble and weary eye bags, is a rich but bored husband with a beautiful (but also bored) wife, rattling around in a giant house wondering what to do with himself. Soon enough, a dead body appears. That’s the premise of Deep Water, a sultry new thriller starring Affleck and Ana de Armas as his wayward partner, but I could just as easily be describing Gone Girl, David Fincher’s superlative 2014 thriller about another Affleck-led relationship that goes sour. That tension is what the actor brings to the table these days: In any scene, you’re not sure whether you should kiss him or call the police.

Ever since the once boyishly charming A lister entered his 40s, he’s leaned into roles that emphasize a haunted past without sacrificing his marquee-friendly looks. Deep Water, directed by Adrian Lyne, is a healthy throwback to a previously dominant genre the erotic drama. Lyne was once a master of the form, churning out hits such as Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, and Unfaithful before seemingly retiring 20 years ago. His return plays to his strengths, stringing together tasteful sex and murder-mystery material to create a perfectly dependable two hours of grown-up fun.

Because this is 2022, however, that grown-up fun has been relegated to a streaming service. (Deep Water will debut on Hulu this Friday.) The film started shooting back in 2019, but its release was delayed time and again thanks to COVID; we’ve waited so long to see it, Affleck and de Armas even had an offscreen relationship that’s already run its course. Fox, Deep Water’s original studio, has now been subsumed under Disney, and the family-friendly House of Mouse has decided to keep the adult story out of cinemas. (Disney has not commented on this decision.) That’s a sad fate for Deep Water, given that it represents a comeback for a type of movie that used to pack houses. (Fatal Attraction was one of the biggest hits of 1987.).

Still, taking in all the steamy silliness from the comfort of your own home is enjoyable enough. In Deep Water, which is based on a 1957 Patricia Highsmith novel (itself a cited inspiration for Gone Girl), Affleck plays Vic Van Allen, a retired microchip designer living in a fancy New Orleans mansion with his wife, Melinda (de Armas), and adorable daughter, Trixie (Grace Jenkins). Though the couple’s partnership is not without sexual spark, Melinda’s i constantly wanders, and she fearlessly parades a series of men in front of her husband over the course of the film, canoodling with them at parties under his nose. Early in the movie, Vic takes Melinda’s latest squeeze aside and hints that he might have had a hand in the disappearance of her last supposed lover.
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