Fun90mighty90 The film "Fatal Attraction" is not only a film, but it's also a warning to all viewers that if you decide to play with fire because your life is getting boring, predictable and tiresome, then don't be shocked if you get burned!A normal househusband has a life that many would say was pretty perfect. He has a beautiful and thoughtful wife. He has a well behaved and intelligent little girl. He has a tidy and well furnished apartment and a well paying job, however, in his opinion, his life situation has become restricted because of his obligations and responsibilities. His perception of his life and his life situation has made him think that he is stuck or tied down and so when he meets another attractive woman who shows interest in him, they begin flirting, establish that he is already married and the flirting continues, they both eventually give into temptation and have a sexual encounter. After the sexual encounter, the difference in perception on each other and on the intimate interaction between them begins to show. He thought of it as a bit of fun, and she begins to develop feelings for him. As the film continues, he starts to see her as a threat to his life as she starts to harass him, play mind games with him and she even resorts to emotional blackmail to stop a man, she is beginning to fall in love with, from leaving her on her own. Her character is clearly emotionally vulnerable and he, not knowing, exploited it because he didn't know her that well. His guilt and regret begins to take over him causing him to lose his temper, threaten her and even become violent. The two characters hurt each other throughout the film and eventually, it begins to hurt everyone else who is involved in his life. The moral of this story, I think, is that every decision we make has a positive and negative impact on our lives. Every decision we make can be short term, however, some can be long term, or even go away and come back to haunt us in the future. Being blind to how good you've got it and not appreciating what you have can persuade people to do selfish things and these selfish acts can effect those we love. We all have obligations and responsibilities in our lives, however, we must not let our inner resentment towards those life factors take over and be the reason for our bad and frivolous decisions. I guess what i'm saying is, everyone should take a step back and really look at what they've got sometimes. Remember, there is always someone worse off than you and being greedy and wanting something you shouldn't have, will cost you and in Dan Gallagher's life, he almost lost everything because of a fling and Alex Forrest lost her life!

Bodo FATAL ATTRACTION is a psychological thriller about the perfect family gone wrong, about one simple affair capable of destroying lives. Glenn Close does well as the psychopathic love affair. She and the entire cast deliver solid performances. The story keeps you going and the ending is truly suspenseful.However, FATAL ATTRACTION is a long haul away from being a masterpiece. The cinematography is quite generic. Dialogues are shot in long shot / re-shot sequences. Everything is set in rather dull environments: office rooms and bleak city apartments. However, it is the movie's pacing that is its biggest downfall. While FATAL ATTRACTION does pick up speed towards the end, the first half felt like a drag. I'm a fan of slow movies, but here the pace just wasn't justified. For such a pace, you need more than just generic archetypes such as "the perfect wife" and "the loving husband". The characters don't go much beyond what we've (since then) seen in many many movies.How has FATAL ATTRACTION aged? Yes, there's violence and sex that at the time must have been shocking... but audiences today are accustomed to more extreme stuff and may be bored by this late 80's flick. I'm not saying they should've turned this into a gory slasher movie ... but the movie ain't all that deep to really justify the "psycho" in "psychothriller".The other thing that hasn't aged so well is the 80's synth tunes... which just feel cheesy to modern audiences! ;-)

Max Cohen Pulse pounding and disturbing in all the right ways. I was glued to the screen the entire time, wondering what insanity Close would unleash next. My biggest complaints are that 1) the ending felt a little too rushed and predictable, and 2) that the kidnapping really didn't serve much of a purpose other than to get Michael Douglas back with his wife for the final confrontation without them actually having to talk about his affair. It's a shame because the scene where his wife kicks him out was well done and very memorable. Still though, I'm glad that I saw it and would definitely recommend it.

MisterWhiplash It's amazing to think that dozens - maybe hundreds(?) - of movies, especially from the Lifetime channel, can trace their lineage to this film (and people like John Carpenter and Brian De Palma turned this down in part as they saw it as unoriginal, taking from Clint Eastwood's great debut, Play Misty for Me). I think that makes this hold up is the acting, pure and simple. Douglas and Close and also Anne Archer as the wife really make this material work as strong as it can - they sell every minute they can, and they have to. This is even in knowing that the movie doesn't really have a very firm moral leg to stand on; we should be on Michael Douglas' side, but he's the one that screwed up.Sure, Glenn Close is crazy, or a victim of abuse as well if one wants to dig a little deeper (who knows what happened with dear old dad before he died of that heart attack), but, and this is important, she's right (certainly initially) or at least has a point that should matter about how he's just tossing her to the wayside after a night or two of "fun". I like that Lyne and the writer have underlying implications that make it more harrowing and that it paints the two sides as neither right or wrong (though of course one is more wrong than the other, the wrongs don't make anything right) up to varying degrees. What makes it not stand up over time is the ending, or even the last act.From a writing perspective it should have ended how it was originally supposed to, with Alex killing herself and framing Dan as if it was murder. It calls back to the mention of Madame Butterfly, which is the set up and pay-off. But because the producers acquiesced it turns into the template for countless s***y movies where the character has one last hurrah to mess with the supposed heroes and blood is spilled and one more life is lost. In a sense my criticism is the same as Ebert's, that it kind of turns into a Friday the 13th movie. But at least for 85% of the running time, maybe 90%, it is a provocative, terrifying drama that has a simple moral message: don't cheat.