Opening bad but not a ‘Fatale’ mistake
Its opening moments suggest “Fatale” may be alarmingly bad.
“I was always the smart one, the one who played to win,” the noir thriller’s lead character, Michael Ealy’s Derrick, says in narration mostly absent from the rest of the affair. “I was damn good at it — I was the best. But then I took my eye off the ball and, just like that, the rules changed. I was no longer playing to win. This was a new game. I’m playing for my life now.” Wow. That is rough.
And considering that “Fatale” was penned by David Loughery — credited with scripting 1989’s “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” considered by many to be the worst of the “Trek” films — you don’t really expect things will get better.
They do, though — if only marginally.
Most importantly, “Fatale” isn’t the tale of the jilted lover its trailer would have you believe, at least not exactly.
It’s a bit more complicated than it appears, even if the Dean Taylor-directed affair never rises from guilty-pleasure territory.
It certainly offers some eye candy in the form of the enviable Los Angeles home shared by Derrick and his wife, Tracie (Damaris Lewis), complete with an amazing view of the city and an absolutely heavenly looking infinity edge pool. (His sports car also is the thing of dreams.)
Derrick is a former highlevel college athlete who, with partner Rafe (Mike Colter), has built a successful sports agency. In playing to win, however, Derrick has somewhat neglected his marriage, and the late nights Tracie is spending out of the house — allegedly for work — concern
him.
When he and Rafe attend a bachelor party in Las Vegas, the latter convinces the former to take off his wedding ring and forget about being married while they’re there.
It’s not long after that he finds himself at the bar hitting it off with a woman named Val (Hilary Swank) — he says his name is Darren — who says she regularly takes a “therapeutic getaway” to Sin City to escape her high-stress job in another town.
They spend the night together. While attempting to leave the next morning — for what he says is a flight home to Seattle — he learns she has locked his phone in the hotel room’s safe. She demands more fun from him before he can have the combination, grab the phone and bounce.
Back home, Derrick is attacked in his house by a masked intruder, whom he
manages to fight off and scare away from the property. When the cops arrive to investigate the incident, wouldn’t you know it? Val is the detective in charge of the case.
Is this a coincidence or is Val somehow involved with the break-in? This obviously capable cop seems surprised to see Darren, er, Derrick, but immediately goes about making him squirm with vague comments in front of Tracie, so we, like Derrick, feel as though we’re playing from behind, to borrow lingo the character would use.
The best thing about the script by Loughery — whose credits also include 1992’s “Passenger 57” and last year’s “The Intruder,” also directed by Taylor and starring Ealy — is it does a reasonably good job of keeping you guessing as to what really is happening.
Along with being concerned about Val, we need to
keep one eye on Rafe, who thinks Derrick and he should take a massive offer to sell their business.
And then there’s Derrick’s cousin Tyrin ( Tyrin Turner), who has a questionable past and regularly asks Derrick for cash.
We also learn about an issue in Val’s life that will prove to be relevant to what becomes an increasingly complicated ordeal for Derrick.
The movie is fortunate to have Swank, who won an Academy Award for her starring turn in 2000’s “Boys Don’t Cry” and whose credits also include 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby” and “The Hunt” from earlier this year. She seems to be enjoying doing the femme-fatale thing for a change.
Meanwhile, Ealy (“Think Like a Man,” 2014’s “About Last Night”) is solid enough opposite Swank as a man whose situation is making him more and more desperate
ehind the camera, Taylor keeps things moving and offers the occasional genuinely tense movement.
Plus, “Fatale” has a little bit to say about what can happen to a Black man, guilty or otherwise, once this country’s criminal-justice system takes an interest in him.
Ultimately, though, “Fatale” is kind of silly, a movie to take in while you devour a big bowl of popcorn.
Just be thankful you won’t need to swallow much more of that narration.