Deep Water

Deep Water (2022)

Directed by Adrian Lyne

Screenplay by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson

Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith

Stars: Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas, Tracy Letts, Dash Mihok, Rachel Blanchard, Jacob Elordi, Brendan Miller and Finn Wittrock

This movie was touted as a a return to form for director, Adrian Lyne to his sexual thrillers from the 80s. This movie is not a big weekend blowout party, but a person sitting at home in the dark say, "whoo."

This story about a couple Vic and Melinda (Affleck, de Armas) who seem to have a picture perfect life, but something dark and sinister in under the surface. Melinda is a serial cheater and Vic is privy to it. Vic wants to stay in the marriage for the sake of their kid. Maybe? Who cares?

This was boring. Seriously. The movie was so dull and lifeless that I was checking my phone, leaving the room to do something more interesting than watching this movie. For years, I did not get the Affleck that he got. Now, I understand why he gets it. He doesn't embody the characters. He is saying lines. No emotion, no nuance in his performance here. My face was the facial expressions that Vic had.

I do not like this movie. The "action" starts in the last twenty minutes of the movie. It was sloppy. Stupid. Dumb. Idiotic. There was a glaring continuity error during the climax of this movie. I had to pause the movie and watch it again. Nobody saw it. The director or editor saw it. Face palm.

Rating: 1/10

Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Directed by Adrian Lyne

Screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin

Stars: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Jason Alexander, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Patricia Kalember, Matt Craven, Eriq La Salle, Ving Rhames,  Brian Tarantina, Anthony Alessandro, Macauley Culkin and Danny Aiello

I have a completely different perception of what Jacob's Ladder was supposed to be. I thought the film was going to be a mind trip for all of the movie. I was wrong. Adrian Lyne made something other than a sexually charged thriller. This is a psychological thriller. That's different, right?

Jacob Singer (Robbins) is a Vietnam War veteran living in New York city as a postal worker with his second wife, Jezzie (Peña). He starts having debilitating dreams about his time in the war when his platoon were wiped out, his life with his first wife, Sarah (Kalember) and the death of his son, Gabe (Culkin). Nobody knows what is going on with him, including Jacob himself. The more the dreams persist, the more confused he becomes about what is real and what is not.

At first I was thinking, not another Vietnam War movie, but it's not. The movie is about mental deterioration of a man's psyche. The film was about the effects of war before PTSD was in the vernacular. Jacob was a tortured soul that wants to have peace in his life. As the movie goes along, you see what the ending was going to be. A couple of characters have hinted about the end of the movie. It kinda made the movie anti-climactic in that way.

Tim Robbins gives a very convincing performance as Jacob. A man trapped in his own thoughts. He doesn't know what is real and what is not. He wants to find answers about why is he having the dreams. What do they mean? How can he get rid of them? Is he crazy? Is he hallucinating four years after the incident in Saigon?

I liked the movie overall, but I thought the blatant clues left by several characters ruined the end for me.

My Rating