DEEP WATER
Cert 15 ★★
On Amazon Prime now
With Tom Cruise’s Top Gun sequel and a new series of Stranger Things coming up, it must have seemed like a good time to revive an 80s favourite – the erotic thriller.
Deep Water is directed by Adrian Lyne, the man who brought us Flashdance, 9½ Weeks, Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction.
Sadly, this shallow adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel fails to offer any kind of thrill.
Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas play rich married couple Vic and Melinda. Vic has retired early after making
a fortune from a computer chip that powers military drones. He’s made a less successful deal with the freespirited Melinda.
In return for providing him with an adorable daughter (a scene-stealing Grace Jenkins), he allows Melinda to have as many affairs as she pleases. And, it turns out, affairs please her very much.
The film quickly settles into a dull pattern.
A semi-naked De Armas cavorts with hot young hunks while Affleck looks on blankly, a trick he perfected playing his depressed Batman.
The film perks up briefly when events take a murderous turn but Lyne fails to deliver a killer twist.