Dan Gallagher is a married family man who will quickly regret his one night stand with Alex Forrest when after he tells her that was it, she stalks them with devastating consequences at times.
It has now been thirty years since Fatal Attraction hit cinemas and that was the same year I was born, I actually always forget that it was nominated for Best Picture as the main thing people mention when it comes to this film is bunny boiler as that term is pretty widely used. I am actually assuming it is used by people who don’t realize where it actually came from. Yes, she really did boil the bunny!
Dan is a lawyer and seems very happy with his life with his wife and young daughter. But not enough to behave himself when the opportunity arrises with Alex. The thing is though he has no idea that she is completely mental. He never offered her anything more and assumed she would be totally fine about that. Well, that turned out to be far from what happened, the thing is though with that we get a pretty good film out of it. Creepy and thought-provoking.
Glenn Close is outstanding as Alex, I have to mention that as she really is just crazy in the role. As Alex cannot cope with being used a couple of times for sex, she takes things to extreme measures trying to get Dan’s attention. Not realising that it is actually making things a lot worse for herself. She’s just always there creeping around following him, making threats.
I was wondering whilst watching the film if women feel sorry for Alex and men feel sorry for Dan. Or if everyone just thinks he was in the wrong the whole time? She quickly becomes obsessed with him and even early on goes to an unreal measure to try to get him to stay with her. Surely alarm bells should have been ringing for Dan. I guess it just shows that sex really does cloud things over.
I think with the film being from the 80s and the phone calls to the house phone that is not really something that would happen today, but I guess it was the worst thing for Dan with his wife Beth having to wonder why someone kept ringing and hanging up! I will admit that I had forgotten how on edge the film gets you as you are constantly waiting for Alex to show up and be totally crazy again. Although taking Ellen from school was probably the worst part, oh wait a minute what about the poor bunny rabbit? I guess that just shows how difficult it is to pick the worst thing that actually happens to the family.
Michael Douglas puts in a good performance as well trying to cope and deal with the betrayal to his wife and realising just how big of a mistake it really was. Surely this film stopped people from having one night stands for a while? You never know you might end up with an Alex in your life!
Overall, I feel as though this film doesn’t often get the credit it deserves for the performances and thrilling scenes which really do mess with your mind whilst watching and it makes you struggle to decide who was at fault the most. Which is pretty crazy really when it should be Dan, but everything Alex does is just way too far!
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