Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck inDeep Water(2022).Photo: 20th Century Studios
Ben AffleckandAna de Armasare playing twisted games with each other inDeep Water— and some critics are here for it.
Based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel, the erotic thriller stars Affleck as Vic and de Armas as his wife Melinda, who seeks out extramarital affairs and dangles her suitors in front of her husband’s face. Vic becomes increasingly obsessed, leading to twists and turns that flip their marriage upside down.
Originallyintended to hit theaters,Deep Waterdebuted on Hulu Friday, and critics are mostly mixed on the movie, which is what brought the two leads together in real life: Affleck, 49, and de Armas, 33, dated from 2019 until theirbreakup in January 2021.
In her review forThe Wall Street Journal, Amy Nicholson called the film a “wickedly funny potboiler about sex, gossip and hypocrisy” with “chilly blue cinematography and coldly erotic score.”
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Variety’s critic Peter Debrugesaid this new movieis “sexy and plenty entertaining, mind you, but it’s just not very useful insofar as what it says about real relationships.”
“Vic’s actions get increasingly unbelievable as the movie goes on, but Lyne’s a talented enough director to keep us invested, even in the lunatic last third,” wrote Debruge. “If anything, he doesn’t push things far enough. In other words, he’s still great at what he does; he just doesn’t do enough of it.”
The New York Times' Jeannette Catsoulis saidDeep Wateris “in many ways a baffling return for Lyne,” noting that “there’s surprisingly little sex, and what there is has none of the vividness and tactility Lyne is known for.” She adds, “Deep Waterfeels like a movie that’s had everything of interest well and truly sucked out.”
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Darren Franich wrote in a review forEntertainment Weeklythat the movie “isn’t really thrilling or erotic”: “The final act requires everyone to suddenly become 63 percent stupider, though there are sublime pleasures in the late plot turns.”
All in all, asThe Wrap’s Alonso Duralde puts it,Deep Water"doesn’t invoke the beads of sweat that the genre’s best can manage, but it’s a pleasurably trashy reminder of the flashy fun that Lyne and his many imitators once regularly brought to the screen."
Deep Water, which also starsTracy Letts, Kristen Connolly,Jacob Elordi,Lil Rel HoweryandFinn Wittrock, is now streaming on Hulu.
source: people.com
