Deep Water movie review: Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas’ cuckold fantasy isn’t erotic, but it is cuckoo

Oddly enough—and maybe this is just because it’s still fresh in my memory—the film it resembles the most is Matt Reeves’ The Batman, in that it is also a deathly serious telling of a story so inherently ridiculous, that if I were to repeat it here, you’d think I was making it up.

Speaking of the Dark Knight, Affleck plays a retired tech pioneer named Vic Van Allen in this movie. Did you get that? Vic. Van. Allen. What a name; it absolutely does not belong in a film with a title only one word removed from being as dull as ‘ditch water’. Come to think of it, the title game is surprisingly uninspired here, considering that we are, after all, talking about an Adrian Lyne film.

The iconic filmmaker—he’s the English gent behind classics of the genre such as Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction—emerged from a two-decade-long retirement to make this, which might be enough to pique your interest, as it did mine. But Deep Water will forever be counted among those movies that tanked because of the off-screen drama involving their stars. I call this the Allied Aftermath, after the 2016 Brad Pitt vehicle Allied, which had the misfortune of being released mere weeks after Pitt’s split from Angelina Jolie. In fact, Affleck is no stranger to this phenomenon himself, having starred in the notorious bomb Gigli, which arrived at the peak of the OG Bennifer era.

It was his awkward real-life relationship with the media that convinced David Fincher to cast him in Gone Girl, which I’d imagine is the kind of psychosexual thriller that Deep Water wants to be. Lyne even went so far as to hire cinematographer Eigil Bryld, who worked with Fincher on his House of Cards episodes.

Enigmatic to a fault, choppily edited and peppered with bouts of broad comedy that’ll make you go ‘huh’, Deep Water tells the story of the phenomenally named Vic and his visibly younger trophy wife Melinda, played by de Armas. Here’s an actress whose co-stars will never be able to match the natural chemistry that she has with the camera. Even if, like Affleck, they were dating her while filming. Vic and Melinda are in an open marriage, which sounds like a thing you’d enter into only after having had a nice chat about it with your equally adventurous partner. But you’d never be able to tell if Vic and Melinda ever spoke about it, going by his jealous behaviour every time he sees her openly flirting with a revolving door of young men. This is one of the many ways in which the movie disrespects Melinda; it even has the gall to have some of Vic’s friends cast aspersions on her character.

Determined to appear stoic and aloof, Vic corners one of Melinda’s dates one evening, and strongly implies that he killed the last man who got close with her. He meant it only as a joke, but before long, we see Vic killing Melinda’s boyfriends willy nilly. Is he a jilted lover? Is he a psychotic murderer? Or is Vic, who we’re told retired after inventing a chip that powers military drones, a giant metaphor for American foreign policy? He is, after all, untouchable, despite his many outward acts of aggression. But the movie always maintains an air of mystery about him and Melinda.

There’s a quick moment late in the film when Affleck, in the throes of wild passion, pauses for a moment and giggles. De Armas can’t hold back either. A second ago, they were biting each other’s lips. Stranger still, it’s practically the only time that Affleck cracks a smile in the entire movie—he’d been going for a ‘stuck in a traffic jam’ look the whole time, you see. It’s also the only moment that comes across as spontaneous in a film that is too studied for its own good. The performances otherwise, particularly Affleck’s, are almost imperceptible. It doesn’t help that Vic is a man who moves at his own pace, and in a truly baffling character quirk, breeds snails. De Armas, on the other hand, plays Melinda like she’s on a telenovela.

Co-written by Euphoria’s Sam Levinson, Deep Water just throws you into the… deep end with these two, with little explanation for how they got there. And that’s admittedly part of the fun, figuring out why they’re playing these games, and wondering what drove them to this point. It’s almost like they’re participating in an elaborate role-playing exercise, with sinister consequences, of course. Those expecting a passionate erotic thriller will likely be disappointed, but Deep Water is never boring. If anything, its strangeness makes it oddly compelling.

Deep Water
Director – Adrian Lyne
Cast – Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas, Tracy Letts, Lil Rel Howery, Jacob Elordi, Finn Whitrock
Rating – 2/5